Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Department of Biochemistry, Shivaji University, Vidyanagar, Kolhapur 416004, Maharashtra, India.
2
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, Shandong, China.
3
Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Mumbai, India 410206.
4
Department of Earth Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, South Korea.
Abstract
Biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass is considered to be energy-efficient and cost-effective. In the present study, sorghum husk was biologically pretreated with a white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium (MTCC 4955) under submerged static condition. Ligninolytic enzymes like lignin peroxidase (0.843 U/mL) and manganese peroxidase (0.389 U/mL) played an important role in the biological pretreatment of sorghum husk. Activities of different hydrolytic enzymes such as endoglucanase (57.25 U/mL), exoglucanase (4.76 U/mL), filter paperase (0.580 U/mL), glucoamylase (153.38 U/mL), and xylanase (88.14 U/mL) during biological pretreatment of sorghum husk by P. chrysosporium were evaluated. Enzymatic hydrolysis of untreated sorghum husk and biologically pretreated sorghum husk produced 20.07 and 103.0 mg/g reducing sugars, respectively. This result showed a significant increase in reducing sugar production in the biologically pretreated sorghum husk as compared to its untreated counterpart. Biologically pretreated sorghum husk hydrolysate was further fermented for 48 h using Saccharomyces cerevisiae (KCTC 7296), Pachysolen tannophilus (MTCC 1077), and their co-culture resulting in ethanol yields of 2.113, 1.095, and 2.348%, respectively. The surface characteristics of the substrate were evaluated after the delignification and hydrolysis, using FTIR, XRD, and SEM, confirming the effectiveness of the biological pretreatment process.
Graphical Abstract

Highlights
- Biological pretreatment of sorghum husk using Phanerochaete chrysosporium was investigated.
- Activities of different ligninolytic and hydrolytic enzymes during biological pretreatment were evaluated.
- Significant increase in reducing sugar production as a result of biological pretreatment of sorghum husk vs. untreated biomass.
- Biological pretreatment led to substantial surface morphological changes.
Keywords