Production of ethanol from lignocellulosics: an enzymatic venture.

Abstract

The major objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the effect of enzymatic pretreatment on <i>Lantana camara</i> for improved yield of reducing sugar and bioethanol production. An optimum enzymatic delignification (88.79 %) was achieved after 8 h of incubation. After delignification the substrate was further treated with the mixture of carbohydratases for appropriate saccharification. The enzyme treated substrate yielded maximum reducing sugar (713.33 mg/g dry substrate) after 9 h of saccharification. Monosaccharide content in the saccharified samples were quantified using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system. Using conventional yeast strain, 9.63 g/L bioethanol was produced from saccharified samples of <i>Lantana camara</i>. Structural changes of <i>Lantana camara</i> before and after enzymatic pretreatment were further investigated through Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM).