Kazunori Shinji

Development of continuous flow type hydrothermal reactor for hemicellulose fraction recovery from corncob.

The semi-pilot scale of continuous flow type hydrothermal reactor has been investigated to separate hemicellulose fraction from corncob. We obtained the effective recovery of hemicellulose using tubular type reactor at 200 degrees C for 10 min. From constituent sugar analysis of corncob, 82.2% of xylan fraction was recovered as mixture of xylose, xylooligosaccharides and higher-xylooligosaccharide which has more than DP 10. During purification of solubilized fraction by hydrothermal reaction such as ultrafiltration and ion exchange resin, higher-xylooligosaccharide was recovered as the precipitate. This precipitate was identified as non-blanched xylan fraction which has from DP 11 to DP 21 mainly. In this system, only a small amount of furfural has been generated. This tubular reactor has a characteristic controllability of thermal history, and seems to be effective for sugar recovery from soft biomass like corncob.

Improvement in the productivity of xylooligosaccharides from waste medium after mushroom cultivation by hydrothermal treatment with suitable pretreatment

The effective xylooligosaccharides (XOs) production from the waste medium after mushroom cultivation (WM) was investigated. The WM contains rich nutrients (protein, etc.) which induce Maillard reaction with reducing sugars under hydrothermal conditions. To improve the productivity of XOs, the suitable pretreatment combined with washing and grinding was investigated, and subsequently hydrothermal treatment was demonstrated with batch type and continuous flow type reactor. The washing pretreatment with hot water of 60 degrees C was effective to remove nutrients from the WM, and it led to prevent brownish discoloration on the hydrothermal treatment. On the basis of experimental data, industrial XOs production processes consisting of the pretreatment, hydrothermal treatment and purification step was designed. During the designed process, 2.3 kg-dry of the purified XOs was produced from 30 kg-wet of the WM (15% yield as dry basis weight). Theoretical yield of XOs attained to 48% as xylan weight in the WM.

Role of cellulose-binding domain of exocellulase I from white rot basidiomycete Irpex lacteus.

The core fragment (designated P-42), devoid of the cellulose-binding domain (CBD) in the C-terminus and prepared from Irpex lacteus exocellulase I (Ex-1), was isolated by limited proteolysis using papain. Both the hydrolytic activity and binding ability of the isolated P-42 toward insoluble cellulose were lower than those of the native Ex-1, whereas Ex-1 and P-42 showed similar hydrolytic activities toward soluble substrates. These results indicate that the CBD of I. lacteus Ex-1 is the important domain which could enhance hydrolytic activity and binding ability of the enzyme toward insoluble cellulose. In addition, the isolated P-42 was different from the native Ex-1 in terms of enzymatic properties such as pH and temperature stabilities. These differences in stability, with regard to pH and temperature, between P-42 and the native Ex-1 are probably due to the O-linked sugar chains existing in the linker region.