Rajiv Chandra Rajak
Indian Institute of Technology, India
Title: An eco-friendly enzyme mediated biomass pretreatment and hydrolysis towards bioethanol production
Biography
Biography: Rajiv Chandra Rajak
Abstract
There is a growing interest worldwide in utilization of bioresources through biobased processes leading to channeling considerable effort towards development of new and efficient technologies. Enzymes produced from microorganism’s acts as a green route for lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment. Saacharum spontaneum or Kans grass is a potential lignocellulosic rich in cellulose (38.70 %), hemicelluloses (29.00 %), and lignin (17.46 %). To utilize the major proportion of the carbohydrates such as cellulose and hemicelluloses to produce reducing sugar, degradation of lignin is an important prerequisite in bioethanol production process. In the present work, an enzymatic pretreatment process for lignin degradation or delignification has been optimized through response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD). The maximum delignification recorded was 81.67 % at 6 h upon monitoring the lignin content of 17.46 %. The effectiveness of the enzymatic pretreatment process was investigated through various microscopic and spectroscopic tools as well through porosity analysis that evidenced the specific action of enzyme on lignin. Moreover, the efficacy of enzymatic pretreatment process on enzymatic hydrolysis was studied through optimization based on central composite design. The maximum reducing sugar obtained was 500.30 mg/g at 5.30 h of incubation time which indeed supports the potential of enzymatic mode of biomass pretreatment.