Effect of hemicellulolytic enzymes to improve sugarcane bagasse saccharification and xylooligosaccharides production

• Development of enzymatic mixture for sugarcane bagasse deconstruction.
• Rational design of more efficient and less expensive enzyme mixtures.
• Production of value-added products from bagasse sugarcane by enzymatic hydrolysis.
• Supplementation of commercial cocktail to improve the biomass saccharification.
• Potential applications for bioethanol production and other biorefinery products.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass is limited by economic considerations arising from enzyme production costs and specific activities. The effect of six hemicellulases on raw sugarcane bagasse and two types of pretreated sugarcane bagasse was investigated using experimental designs. Our strategy was successful for developing more efficient and less expensive enzymatic mixture, and also revealed that hemicellulase mixtures with multiple activities could be less effective than expected. In this study, only two hemicelulases, the endo-1,4-xylanases (GH11) from Penicillium funiculosum (XynC11/CAC15487) and the feruloyl esterase (CE1) from Clostridium thermocellum (CtFAE/ATCC27405), effectively broke-down hemicellulose from pretreated sugarcane bagasse (up to 65%), along with the production of xylooligosaccharides (XOS). Our results also demonstrated that GH11 and CE1 can improve biomass saccharification by cellulases. Treatment with these two enzymes followed by a commercial cellulase cocktail (Accellerase®1500) increased saccharification of pretreated lignocellulose by 24%. Collectively, our data contributes to the rational design of more efficient and less expensive enzyme mixtures, targeting the viable production of bioethanol and other biorefinery products.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide