Optimization of Saccharification of Biological Pre-Treated Rice Straw by Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

Pretreatment of rice straw facilitating the enzymatic saccharification process was performed by a ligninolytic fungal consortium, resulting in rice straw having 56.4 % cellulose, 12.2% hemicelluloses, and 2.2% lignin. Using response surface methodology, the combined effect of substrate concentration, temperature and pH on reducing sugar yield from enzymatic saccharification of rice straw optimized substrate concentration, 5.0% (w/v); temperature, 55°C and pH, 4.8 yielding a maximum sugar content of 492.0 milligram per gram dry substrate (mg/gds) with a saccharification efficiency of 81.1%. The experimental results were in good agreement with predicted values. Therefore, the model could be successfully used to identify the effective combinations of the three factors for predicting reducing sugar yield.