Biological pretreatment of corn stover with white rot fungus for improved enzymatic hydrolysis
Abstract Biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass by white rot fungus can represent a low cost and eco friendly alternative to harsh physical, chemical or physico chemical pretreatment methods to facilitate enzymatic hydrolysis. However, fungal pretreatment can cause carbohydrate loss and it is, therefore, necessary to use the appropriate fungal strain biomass type combination. In this work, 26 white rot fungal strains were evaluated under solid state cultivation at 74% moisture level at 28 degC for 30 days for fermentable sugar production from corn stover after enzymatic hydrolysis of each fungal pretreated corn stover using a cocktail of 3 commercial enzyme (cellulase, b glucosidase, hemicellulase) preparations. The best result was obtained with Cyathus stercoreus NRRL 6573 which gave a sugar yield of 394 13 mg/g of pretreated stover followed by Pycnoporus sanguineus FP 10356 Sp (393 17 mg/g) and Phlebia brevispora NRRL 13108 (383 13 mg/g)