Microbial delignification and hydrolysis of paddy straw for ethanol production

Biologically treated paddy straw was hydrolysed using commercial cellulase and fermented to ethanol by yeast. Lignin degrading fungus Pleurotus sajor-caju removed 35.1% lignin from paddy straw at 40 days incubation. Hydrolysis of biologically treated paddy straw with cellulase enzyme loaded at 5 FPU/g substrate at 50°C resulted in about 119 mg/g sugar release. Fermentation of enzymatic hydrolysate by Saccharomyces cerevisiae resulted in production of 2.0% ethanol after 72 h incubation at 30°C.