Premium
Efficient production of fermentable sugars from oil palm empty fruit bunch by combined use of acid and whole cell culture–catalyzed hydrolyses
Author(s) -
Li Qingxin,
Ng Wei Ting,
Puah Sze Min,
Bhaskar Ravindran Vijay,
Soh Loon Siong,
MacBeath Calum,
Parakattil Pius,
Green Phil,
Wu Jin Chuan
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
biotechnology and applied biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.468
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1470-8744
pISSN - 0885-4513
DOI - 10.1002/bab.1188
Subject(s) - palm oil , catalysis , chemistry , production (economics) , food science , biochemistry , economics , macroeconomics
Empty fruit bunch (EFB) of oil palm trees was converted to fermentable sugars by the combined use of dilute acids and whole fungal cell culture–catalyzed hydrolyses. EFB (5%, w/v) was hydrolyzed in the presence of 0.5% H 2 SO 4 and 0.2% H 3 PO 4 at 160 °C for 10 Min. The solid fraction was separated from the acid hydrolysate by filtration and subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis at 50 °C using the whole cell culture of Trichoderma reesei RUT‐C30 (2%, w/v), which was prepared by cultivation at 30 °C for 7 days to reach its maximal cellulase activity. The combined hydrolyses of EFB gave a total sugar yield of 82.0%. When used as carbon sources for cultivating Escherichia coli in M9 medium at 37 °C, the combined EFB hydrolysates were shown to be more favorable or at least as good as pure glucose for cell growth in terms of the higher (1.1 times) optical density of E. coli cells. The by‐products generated during the acid‐catalyzed hydrolysis did not seem to obviously affect cell growth. The combined use of acid and whole cell culture hydrolyses might be a commercially promising method for pretreatment of lignocellulose to get fermentable sugars.