Evaluating novel fungal secretomes for efficient saccharification and fermentation of composite sugars derived from hydrolysate and molasses into ethanol.

This paper evaluates the ability of secretome from two thermotolerant fungal strains (Aspergillus terreus 9DR and Achaetomium strumarium 10DR) for boosting the hydrolytic efficiency of benchmark cellulolytic preparation (Cellic CTec2). Further we report enhanced saccharification of different agro-residues under semi-aerobic when compared to aerobic conditions. The mass spectroscopic analysis of the hydrolysates indicates the role of auxiliary oxidative enzymes present in A. terreus and A. strumarium secretomes for enhancing the capability of the cellulolytic cocktails. The paper further demonstrate positive effect of using the cocktails for enhanced saccharification and subsequent fermentation to ethanol of acid pre-treated rice straw, corn residues and sugarcane bagasse at higher substrate loading rates (20% w/v). The paper also reports co-utilization of composite sugars derived from molasses and enzymatic hydrolysate obtained from agnostic lignocellulosics for efficient bioconversion to ethanol applicable for developing BOLT-ON technology.

Potential of oleaginous yeast Trichosporon sp., for conversion of sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate into biodiesel.

This study reports production of microbial oil from a yeast strain Trichosporon sp., (RW) isolated from decayed wood. Preliminary analysis based on fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy of Nile red stained yeast cells showed accumulation of lipid globules. The potential of the yeast to produce lipids was evaluated on glucose, glycerol and acid hydrolysate of sugarcane bagasse, where Trichosporon sp. (RW) was found to accumulate 21.45 (59.6%), 18.41 (56%) and 10.25g/l (40.5%) of the lipids after 120h of fermentation at 30°C. FAME analysis of lipids by GC-FID and NMR revealed oleic acid (18:1) as the major constituent, corresponding to 50.05, 46.48 and 54.66% of the accumulated lipids in glucose, glycerol and hydrolysate grown cultures, respectively. Other accumulated lipids included palmitic (16:0), linoleic (18:2) and stearic acids (18:0) in that order. The cetane number of the lipids ranged from 52.39 to 59.57 indicating suitability for biodiesel production.