The preparation of chitosan from corncob hydrolyzate by Actinomucor elegans

Abstract

Corncob as agricultural waste contains a large amount of lignocellulose, while lignocellulose is the most abundant and cheap renewable resource on earth. So it is significance to maximize the use of lignocellulose from comcob hydrolysis and hydrolysate detoxification. This paper studies the influence of corncob hydrolysis and deep detoxification on chitosan production by Actinomucor elegans. The experimental results show that the optimal conditions were sulfuric acid 0.5%, temperature 120 °C, ratio of solid–liquid 1:10, time 2 h. Then hydrolysis detoxification was treated with Ca(OH)2 used bacteria cultivation, and the yield chitosan was 2.44 g/L. Under the same culture conditions hydrolysate by Ca(OH)2 and activated carbon secondary detoxification, mycelium and chitosan production were significantly improved, especially chitosan production reached 2.87 g/L. These results provide a scientific material for the optimization process of chitosan production by Actinomucor elegans.