Sayit Sargin

Bioethanol production from raffinate phase of supercritical CO2 extracted Stevia rebaudiana leaves

The extracts of Stevia rebaudiana are marketed as dietary supplements and utilized as natural sweetening agent in food products. Subsequent to extraction on industrial scale, large quantities of solid wastes are produced. The aim of this study was to investigate the bioconversion efficiency of supercritical CO(2) extracted S. rebaudiana residues. Therefore, leaves were extracted with supercritical CO(2) and ethanol mixture in order to obtain glycosides, then the raffinate phase was hydrolyzed by both dilute acid and various concentrations of cellulase and β-glucosidase cocktail. The maximum yield of reducing sugars reached 25.67 g/L under the optimal conditions of enzyme pretreatment, whereas 32.00 g/L was reached by consecutive enzymatic and acid hydrolyses. Bioethanol yield (20 g/L, 2.0% inoculum, 2 days) based on the sugar consumed was 45.55% corresponding to a productivity of 0.19 kg/m(3)h which demonstrates challenges to be utilized as a potential feedstock for the production of bioethanol.

Formulation of organic and inorganic hydrogel matrices for immobilization of β-glucosidase in microfluidic platform

The aim of this study was to formulate silica and alginate hydrogels for immobilization of β‐glucosidase. For this purpose, enzyme kinetics in hydrogels were determined, activity of immobilized enzymes was compared with that of free enzyme, and structures of silica and alginate hydrogels were characterized in terms of surface area and pore size. The addition of polyethylene oxide improved the mechanical strength of the silica gels and 68% of the initial activity of the enzyme was preserved after immobilizing into tetraethyl orthosilicate–polyethylene oxide matrix where the relative activity in alginate beads was 87%. The immobilized β‐glucosidase was loaded into glass–silicon–glass microreactors and catalysis of 4‐nitrophenyl β‐d‐glucopyranoside was carried out at various retention times (5, 10, and 15 min) to compare the performance of silica and alginate hydrogels as immobilization matrices. The results indicated that alginate hydrogels exhibited slightly better properties than silica, which can be utilized for biocatalysis in microfluidic platforms.