Monday, May 5, 2008
12-08

Cellulosic ethanol: hydrolytic enzymes produced by wild Aspergillus niger 12 and mutant Aspergillus niger 3T5B8 from tropical environmental

Sônia Couri, Antonio Xavier, and Selma da Costa. Embrapa Agroindústria de Alimentos, Avenida das Américas 29501, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Cellulosic ethanol can be produced from a wide variety of cellulosic biomass feedstocks from agricultural and industrial plant wastes. They are composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Separating of these polymeric structures into fermentable sugars is essential to get efficiency and economical production of cellulosic ethanol. Enzymatic hydrolysis, one alternative method, can be utilized after a physical and chemical pretreatment process. The objective of this study was to select the most appropriate strain for production of cellulases and other hydrolytic enzymes. In advance, there were selected the wild Aspergillus niger 12 and the morphological mutant Aspergillus niger 3T5B8. The enzymes production were evaluated by solid-state fermentation in aerated glass columns during 96h, using wheat bran as support, enriched with 0.91% (m/v) of ammonium sulfate. In the most favorable time fermentation the wild A. niger 12 produced CMCase 143 U/g; FPCase 4 U/g; polygalacturonase 513 U/g; β-glycosidase 422 U/g and xylanase 733U/g, while the A. niger 3T5B8 produced CMCase 230 U/g; FPCase 8,5U/g; polygalacturonase 1169 U/g; β-glycosidase 1356 U/g and xylanase 1259U/g. Both enzymatic extracts will be tested by a Brazilian company in the step of enzyme saccharification of cellulose. 

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