Effect of Cellulase-producing Microbial Consortium on Biogas Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass

The product of degraded lignocellulose is sugar which can be utilized by microbial consortium for biogas production. However, the hydrolysis of lignocellulose to produce sugar is addressed to be the rate-limiting step due to the complexity of lignocellulose that is barricade for enzyme accessibility. The aim of this work is to study the effect of a lignocellulose degrading microbial consortium to enhance the biogas production from rice straw. Microbial consortium were isolated from natural samples, including horse manure and decomposed wood. The cellulase activities of each microbial consortium derived from horse manure and decomposed wood were characterized to be endo-β-glucanase (0.417 and 0.434 U/mg), exo-β-glucanase (0.116 and 0.184 U/mg) and β-glucosidase (1.069 and 3.184 U/mg), respectively. The batch experiments for biogas production were performed to investigate the effect of each microbial consortia. The results showed that both microbial consortium enhanced the biogas production because the biogas yield increased to 109.60 and 161.49 ml/g-VS when adding microbial consortium derived from horse manure and decomposed wood, respectively. This work is considered to be a contribution to the research on lignocellulosic biomass degradation by complex microbial community with potential for further biotechnological applications, especially the degradation of lignocellulose-based feedstocks.