(303e) Modifications in Biomass to Increase Ethanol Yield

Ethanol an alternative to the currently available fuel can be produced from lignocellulosic feedstock obtained from agricultural wastes. However, lignin acts as a barrier to the conversion of cellulose to ethanol. The purpose of our work is to treat the lignocellulosic feedstock with the target specific microorganisms, which would attack only lignin thus enhance the ethanol yield and ultimately decrease the ethanol costs. Inoculum sources for lignin depolymerization were screened. Sources were cultures from dissection of guts of various insects like termites and beetles that are known to digest wood. Weight loss experiments were conducted on the pretreated and untreated cornstover using the selected sources. 5ml of the substrate was taken in a tube and 500µl of inoculum was pipeted. 5 replicates were made for each inoculum. The cultures were grown in static incubators. Experiments were conducted for 120hrs. Out of the fourteen sources screened four strains gave positive results. As a part of future studies, SSF experiments will be conducted using the four strains from weight loss experiments on both pretreated and untreated cornstover feedstock, and the ethanol and sugar yields will be monitored. HPLC (RI detector) will be used to track the ethanol and sugars yields.