Executive Summary : | Lignocellulosic biowaste can be utilized for production of lactic acid and bioethanol leading to the development of feasible and economical process. This proposal aims at production of lactic acid and bioethanol using lignocellulosic biomass. Lactic acid producing bacteria will be isolated, identified and characterized. Lignocellulosic biomass (rice and wheat straw, rice stalk, rice husk, elephant grass, congress grass, millets etc.) will be subjected to different pre-treatment strategies. Saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass will be done by using different cocktails of combination of recombinant cellulases (CtGH5, CtGH8 and CtGH1) and hemicellulases (CtGH43, CtGH11 and PsGH10). Lignocellulosic hydrolysate will be used to produce lactic acid by isolated lactic acid producing bacteria and bioethanol by using mixed cultures (S. cerevisiae, P. stiptis, C. shehatae and Z. mobilis). Production of lactic acid and bioethanol will be statistically optimized and subsequently scaled up. |
Achievements : | "The project work aims to select a pretreatment method i.e. DES solvent system of ChCl and acetic acid (AA),as the best suitable pretreatment method for rice straw biomass. The ChCl:AA pretreatment was statistically optimized for maximal delignification and retainment of the total carbohydrate content (TCC) in the pretreated RS considering three significant pretreatment parameters; ChCl: AA molar ratio, time and temperature. For the efficient saccharification of choline chloride: acetic acid-pretreated RS, enzyme cocktail was formulated using crude(unpurified) recombinant bacterial hydrolytic enzyme cocktail consisting of cellulases (cellobiohydrolase, CtCBH5Aand cellulolytic chimeric enzyme, CtGH1-L1-CtGH5-F194A with a bi-functional activity of β-1,4-endoglucanaseand β-1,4-glucosidase) an |