Pretreatment of polysaccharidic wastes with cellulolytic Aspergillus fumigatus for enhanced production of biohythane in a dual-stage process

• Published in: Bioresource technology Vol. 299; p. 122592
• Main Authors: Basak, Bikram, Saha, Shouvik, Chatterjee, Pradip K., Ganguly, Amit, Woong Chang, Soon, Jeon, Byong-Hun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Acidogenic fermentation; Anaerobic digestion; Aspergillus fumigatus; Biohythane; Biomass; Biomass pretreatment; Carbohydrates; Cellulose; Taguchi methodology; Taguchi methodology; Biohythane; Biomass pretreatment; Acidogenic fermentation; Anaerobic digestion
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122592

[Display omitted] •Optimization of fungal pretreatment reduced the pretreatment time and sugar loss.•Optimized fungal pretreatment solubilized 53% of the total sugar.•Dual-stage biohythane process resulted in 62% reduction in TS in pretreated biomass.•Energy recovery as biohythane improved by 47% with fungal pretreated biomass. Biological pretreatment of polysaccharidic wastes (PWs) is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly approach to improve the digestibility and utilization of these valuable substrates in dual-stage biohythane production. In order to reduce the prolonged incubation time and loss of carbohydrate during the pretreatment of PWs with Aspergillus fumigatus, a systematic optimization using Taguchi methodology resulted in an unprecedented recovery of soluble carbohydrates (362.84 mg g−1) within 5 days. The disruption and fragmentation of lignocellulosic structures in PWs, and possible saccharification of cellulose and hemicellulose components, increased its digestibility. A dual-stage biohythane production with pretreated PWs showed increased yield (214.13 mL g−1 VSadded), which was 56% higher than the corresponding value with the untreated PWs. This resulted in 47% higher energy recovery as biohythane in pretreated biomass compared to untreated biomass. Optimized fungal pretreatment is, therefore, an effective method to improve the digestibility of PWs and its subsequent conversion to biohythane.