Direct ethanol production from starch, wheat bran and rice straw by the white rot fungus Trametes hirsuta

Direct ethanol production from starch, wheat bran and rice straw by the white rot fungus Trametes hirsuta - Enzyme and microbial technology, 48(3), p.273-277, 2011 .

The white rot fungus Trametes hirsuta produced ethanol from a variety of hexoses: glucose, mannose, cellobiose and maltose, with yields of 0.49, 0.48, 0.47 and 0.47 g/g of ethanol per sugar utilized, respectively. In addition, this fungus showed relatively favorable xylose consumption and ethanol production with a yield of 0.44 g/g. T. hirsuta was capable of directly fermenting starch, wheat bran and rice straw to ethanol without acid or enzymatic hydrolysis. Maximum ethanol concentrations of 9.1, 4.3 and 3.0 g/l, corresponding to 89.2 percent, 78.8 percent and 57.4 percent of the theoretical yield, were obtained when the fungus was grown in a medium containing 20 g/l starch, wheat bran or rice straw, respectively. The fermentation of rice straw pretreated with ball milling led to a small improvement in the ethanol yield: 3.4 g ethanol/20 g ball-milled rice straw. As T. hirsuta is an efficient microorganism capable of hydrolyzing biomass to fermentable sugars and directly converting them to ethanol, it may represent a suitable microorganism in consolidated bioprocessing applications.


WHITE ROT FUNGUS
TRAMETES HIRSUTA
ETHANOL
WHEAT BRAN
RICE STRAW
BALL MILLING