Optimizing Cellulase Production from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) using Solid State Fermentation (SSF)

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is one of the key topics in environmental protection [1]. In England, around 23.7 million tons of household waste was generated in 2009/10, which equates to 1036 Kg per household [2]. The current technologies for MSW treatment are incineration, landfill, composting and anaerobic digestion. Recently, anaerobic conversion of MSW into biogas has attracted growing interest as a promising method to reduce environmental impact and to generate renewable fuel at the same time. However, some MSW contain over 50% lignocellulosic content [3] and anaerobic digestion may not represent the most efficient process. One alternatively approach is to hydrolyze the lignocellulosic component in the MSW into simple sugars and then ferment these sugars into ethanol. It was estimated that around 152 L of ethanol could be generated from a ton of processed MSW [3].