Mônica Monica Caramez Triches Damaso

UTILIZATION OF AGROINDUSTRIAL RESIDUES FOR LIPASE PRODUCTION BY SOLID-STATE FERMENTATION

The aim of this work was to produce lipases by solid-state fermentation (SSF) using, as substrate, agroindustrial residue supplemented with by-products from corn oil refining process or olive oil. For a group of ten fungi strains selected in the first steps, the lipase activity obtained by SSF varied from 7.7 to 58.6 U/g of dry substrate (gds). Among the evaluated strains, the Aspergillus niger mutant 11T53A14 was selected by presenting the best enzymatic production. For the fermentation tests, two substrates were also investigated: wheat bran and corn cob, both supplemented with olive oil. The best results were obtained with wheat bran. Additionally, three industrial by-products from corn oil refining (soapstock, stearin and fatty acids) were evaluated as substitutes to the olive oil in the function of lipases production inducer. Among them, soapstock and stearin were the best inducers, whereas fatty acids presented an inhibitor effect. The highest lipase activities using soapstock, stearin and fatty acids were 62.7 U/gds, 37.7 U/gds and 4.1 U/gds, respectively.

The glycerol biorefinery: a purpose for Brazilian biodiesel production

According to estimates from the International Energy Agency, global energy consumption will increase by at least one third, between 2010 and 2035. The additional power required will be provided not only by fossil sources but also by renewables. While the world energy matrix is supplied only by 13.2% from renewable sources, Brazil has different scenery with renewables accounting for 42.4% of the energy matrix. This work aimed to evaluate the potential use of oleaginous in biorefineries considering the produced quantity, prices, and costs of raw materials and products. Considering the availability of these raw materials, the results showed significant opportunities that can be exploited in Brazil, within the biorefinery concept. Soybean oil is the main raw material for biodiesel production in Brazil, although there are many other vegetable oils with potential for this purpose. Related to the production costs, the soybean biodiesel has higher costs than diesel. Then, this biofuel is only produced due to Brazilian regulatory rules and public subsidies. In order to become this production favorable in the market environment, it is essential to aggregate value to all byproducts and residues generated along the biodiesel production chain. Glycerin is a byproduct of biodiesel that could be used, in a glycerol biorefinery concept, as raw material for the production of value-added products through chemical, biochemical, or thermochemical routes.

Selection of cellulolytic fungi isolated from diverse substrates

The aim of the present work was to select filamento us fungi isolated from diverse substrates to obtain the strains with potential to produce the hydrolytic enzymes. F rom a total of 215 strains, seven strains from the soils, six from the plants and one from sugarcane bagasse were sele cted and identified as belonging to the Trichoderma, Penicillium and Aspergillus genera. The best hydrolytic activities obtained by semi-solid fermentation using these strains were approximately: 35; 1; 160; 170 and 120 U/gdm (CMCase, FPase, β-glucosidase, xylanase and polygalacturonase, respectively), demonstrating the ir potential to synthesize the enzymes compared wit h the results reported in the literature.

Bioprocesses for biofuels: an overview of the Brazilian case

Renewables are 46% in the Brazilian energy matrix, while the world scenario differs from this context to use only 13% of these resources. The biomass conversion using bioprocess has great potential to be applied in Brazil due to its large agroindustry which can produce a variety of feedstocks and byproducts that can be converted into biofuels and chemicals. The production of first-generation ethanol using sugarcane is a conventional technology in Brazil. This ethanol is the most competitive in the world, and Brazilian production reached 23.64 billion L in 2012/2013 season. Sugarcane bagasse generated from ethanol production and other biomasses obtained from forest and wood industries, crop residues, and grasses can be deconstructed to obtain sugars. These sugars may be bioconverted into second-generation ethanol and chemicals. Biodiesel is another biofuel that has been produced in Brazil. Although the commercial route to obtain biodiesel uses chemical conversion, there are researches investigating the biochemical route. Furthermore, some topics about microalgae use for biofuels are introduced. Therefore, this paper has the aim to present bioprocesses used in bioenergy production and the Brazilian overview on the conventional technology of first-generation sugarcane ethanol production. Moreover, bench studies and demonstration facilities that have been developed in the country regarding the advanced technologies are presented.

Development and validation of a HILIC-UPLC-ELSD method based on optimized chromatographic and detection parameters for the quantification of polyols from bioconversion processes

Crude glycerol is a by-product of biodiesel production and nowadays has low commercial value for chemical industries. Biotechnological processes may be used to transform this by-product into diverse value-added chemical compounds. In this context, a representative analytical protocol to monitor the production of chemicals from bioprocesses is mandatory. This study presents a novel, simple and fast method developed, validated and based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) with evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) using a hydrophilic interaction chromatography column (HILIC) to identify and quantify glycerol, arabitol and mannitol during bioconversion of crude glycerol. Under optimized conditions, these three target analytes were baseline separated with 6 min. Limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) ranged from 5.0 to 8.0 and 13.0 to 18.0 ng, respectively. The method showed good precision, stability, repeatability and recovery. Polyols exhibited a regression relationship to the log–log function (R > 0.999) within the concentration ranges from 5.0 to 2000.0 μg mL−1. Average recoveries covering four points were within the range of 94.6–101.7% with the coefficient of variation being ≤3.1% for the three analytes. The intra- and inter-assay precisions were less than 3.9%. This method was successfully applied to real samples obtained after bioconversion of crude glycerol. The developed method was simpler, faster and more sensitive than the conventional HPLC-RID protocol. Thereby, this new method based on HILIC-UPLC-ELSD represents an important analytical protocol for monitoring glycerol conversion in biotechnological processes and helps to select promising microorganisms during bioprospection studies.