Studies on Cellulase Production by Solid state Fermentation using Sweet Sorghum bagasse

The present study involves production of cellulolytic enzymes by a newly isolated strain of Aspergillus niger isolated from decaying sugarcane bagasse. Solid-state-fermentation was employed using sweet sorghum bagasse as the substrate for the production of enzyme. One factor at a time approach was used to optimize the process variables like moisture content, pH, temperature, and incubation period. A maximum of 19.2 FPU/gds of cellulose and 384.5 IU/g-ds of β-glucosidase activity of were obtained at 70% moisture content, a temperature of 30 °C, pH of 5 and incubation time of 96 h. This study showed an effective utilization of sweet sorghum bagasse for the production of cellulolytic enzymes which could be effectively used for hydrolysis to simple sugars for production of bioethanol.