Integrated delignification and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of hard wood by a white-rot fungus, Phlebia sp. MG-60.
We propose a new process of unified aerobic delignification and anaerobic saccharification and fermentation of wood by a single microorganism, the white-rot fungus Phlebia sp. MG-60. This fungus is able to selectively degrade lignin under aerobic solid state fermentation conditions, and to produce ethanol directly from delignified oak wood under semi-aerobic liquid culture conditions. After 56 d aerobic incubation, 40.7% of initial lignin and negligible glucan were degraded. Then under semi-aerobic conditions without the addition of cellulase, 43.9% of theoretical maximum ethanol was produced after 20 d. Changing from aerobic conditions (biological delignification pretreatment) to semi-aerobic conditions (saccharification and fermentation) enabled the fermentation of wood by solely biological processes. This is the first report of ethanol production from woody biomass using a single microorganism without addition of chemicals or enzymes.
Department of Forest and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Miyazaki, 1-1 Gakuen-kibanadai-nishi, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan. kamei@cc.miyazaki-u.ac.jp
Ichiro
I
Kamei
Yoshiyuki
Y
Hirota
Sadatoshi
S
Meguro
D000332:Aerobiosis; D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000378:metabolism*; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D043364:Endo-1,4-beta Xylanases / Q000378:metabolism; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism; D005285:Fermentation; D008031:Lignin / Q000378:metabolism*; D029963:Quercus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013997:Time Factors; D014934:Wood / Q000378:metabolism*
D000431:Ethanol; D008031:Lignin; D043364:Endo-1,4-beta Xylanases