Maki Takano

Direct ethanol production from rice straw by coculture with two high-performing fungi

To develop efficient and economical direct ethanol production from fine rice straw crashed mechanically, two high-performing fungi, which can secret hyperactive cellulases and/or ferment effectively various sugars, were selected from some strains belong to Mucor circinelloides preserved in our laboratory. The simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) by coculture with these fungi was investigated. The screening of highperforming fungi resulted in the selection of NBRC 4572 as an ethanol-producing fungus and NBRC 5398 as a cellulase-secreting fungus. The strain 4572 produced ethanol aerobically from glucose and xylose in high yields of 0.420 g/g at 36 h and 0.478 g/g at 60 h, respectively, but secreted fairly low cellulases. On the other hand, the strain 5398 also produced ethanol from glucose in yield of 0.340 g/g though it had a little growth in xylose culture. However, it secreted hyperactive cellulases that are essential for hydrolysis of rice straw in culture and the maximum activities of endo-β-glucanase and β-glucosidase were 2.11 U/L and 1.47 U/L, respectively. In SSF of rice straw by coculture with two fungi selected, the ethanol production reached 1.28 g/L after 96 h when the inoculation ratio of the strain 5398 to the strain 4572 was 9.

PRODUCTION OF BIOFUEL FROM WASTE LIGNOCELLULOSIC BIOMASS MATERIALS BASED ON ENERGY SAVING VIEWPOINT

To develop biofuel production from waste lignocellulosic biomass materials the rice straw was selected one of renewable material and the degradation condition about pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis to obtain effectively fermentable sugars was investigated. Rice straw was pretreated by five kinds of methods and then the components ratio of rice straw was examined. First, the steam explosion was selected based on the degradability and the requirement energy. In addition, the best suitable combination of two cellulases to effective and economical hydrolyze was determined from the degradability of these pretreated rice straws. In the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of the steam explosion rice straw by combining cellulase cocktail and a novel fermenting fungus, 13.2 g/L ethanol was able to product for 96 h.