원문정보
초록
영어
During past decades, considerable efforts have been made to utilize lignocellulose as biomass feedstock for the optimal production of bio-ethanol as an alternative source of fuel. Cellulase enzyme can be used for converting pre-treated lignocellulosic material to glucose, which can be further fermented to ethanol. The major concern in an enzymatic process is the instability of the enzyme under repetitive or prolonged use and inhibition by high substrate and product concentration. Immobilization is a very effective alternative for repetitive use of enzymes. Entrapment method of immobilization is advantageous over other methods as they do not involve chemical modification of the enzyme. In this work, rice hull was pre-treated by soaking in aqueous ammonia (SAA pretreatment) then hydrolyzed to fermentable sugar using immobilized Cellulase enzyme in calcium alginate beads. The fermentation to ethanol was carried out using Saccharomyces cerevisae yeast. Rice hulls composition before and after pre-treatment are analyzed using HPLC. The reducing sugar was determined by DNS method and the ethanol concentration by gas chromatography. The enzyme activity for immobilized and free Cellulase was calculated. Microscopic changes of rice hulls upon SAA pretreatment also observed using SEM.