Technology of miscanthus biomass saccharification with commercially available enzymes

Development of cheap substrates that are not competing with food stuffs for the cultivation of microorganisms is one of the possible ways of reducing the costs of biotechnological production. We analyzed the possibility of using commercially available enzymes with cellulosolytic activity for saccharification of miscanthus biomass of the Soranovsky variety, a new crop registered in Russia in 2013, compared to saccharification of biomasses of Phalaris arundinacea, Thrachomitum lancifolium, and Sida hermaphrodita. For enzymatic hydrolysis we used the commercially available fungal cellulases: Thermomyces lanuginosus xylanase, Aspergillus niger cellulase, and Pen. verruculosum cellobiase and cellulase. Preprocessing with alkaline peroxide preceded enzymatic hydrolysis. The highest rate of hydrolysis was observed in the Phalaris arundinacea biomass. We tested various combinations of enzymes and achieved 100% conversion for all samples relative to the weight of the hydrolyzable components, which corresponds to 70% conversion of biomass.