Improvement of lignocellulosic biomass conversion by optimization of fungal ligninolytic enzyme activity and molasses stillage supplementation

Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass with autochthonous fungi from Serbia

“…The biomass and lignin degradation under optimal conditions in the absence of MS was evenly distributed during the entire pretreatment duration, but the degree of lignin reduction achieved after 18 days in the presence of MS, was achieved after 35 days in the absence of MS. The previous research has shown that the use of MS can improve the enzymatic activity of the fungus (Jović et al, 2020), while the analysis performed in this study showed that the application of MS shortened the pretreatment duration from 35 to 18 days.…”

“…The cultivation conditions were optimized in our previous research. The research also confirmed that the addition of MS improved ligninolytic activity and the improvement was statistically significant (Jović et al, 2020). However, changes in the substrate related to lignin and biomass reduction have not been analyzed.…”

“…However, changes in the substrate related to lignin and biomass reduction have not been analyzed. The current research examined the reduction of Klasson lignin and biomass, and the selectivity achieved by T. hirsut F13 under optimal pretreatment conditions (substrate moisture of 63%, temperature of 25 °C, MS concentration of 13% (Jović et al, 2020)) after 18 and 35 days. The results showed that after 18 days the reduction of lignin was higher under the optimal cultivation conditions compared to the pretreatment before optimization and that the supplementation with MS further improved the pretreatment (Table 1), the difference between treatment in the presence and absence of MS was statistically significant ( p <0.05).…”

“…The activities of the produced enzymes were determined using spectrophotometric methods. Laccase activity was measured using guaiacol assay (Abd El Monssef et al, 2016;Jović et al, 2018), manganese peroxidase and versatile peroxidase activities were determined with phenol red (Arora and Gill, 2005;Jović et al, 2018;Kuwahara et al, 1984), lignin peroxidase activity with azure B (Archibald, 1992;Jović et al, 2018), and cellulase (carboxymethyl cellulase) and xylan activities were determined by the Miller's DNS method (Jović et al, 2020;Miller, 2002). The dry substrate mass was determined according to the NREL / TP-510-42621 protocol (Sluiter et al, 2008), and the share of acid-soluble and acid-insoluble lignin was determined according to the LAP-003 and LAP-004 protocols (Ehrman, 1996;Templeton and Ehrman, 1995).…”

Examination and optimization of lignocellulolytic activity of Stereum gausapatum F28 on beechwood sawdust supplemented with molasses stillage

“…However, for some agents, such as molasses stillage (MS) a by-product of the alcohol industry which generates 8-15 L of MS per liter of produced alcoholadequate applications and disposal are still being sought 4 . The potential solutions include its use as a substrate or a supplement in a lignocellulosic substrate for enhancement of fungal enzyme production (laccase, amylase, xylanase) [5][6][7] . Still, to recommend the use of this agent in the industry, new fungal isolates have to be examined, and particularly the influence of this agent on their enzyme production/activity.…”