LAUSR

Sugarcane bagasse (SB) is a promising source of appreciable quantities of fermentable sugars. However, the presence of lignin hinders utilization of these carbohydrates and hence pretreatment to remove lignin is necessarily carried out. Here, a biological pretreatment method was synchronized with the production of a thermostable cellulase using SB as a raw material. Initially, bagasse was fermented by a laccase producing fungus, Trametes pubescens MB 89 under solid state fermentation (SSF) and a titer of 1758 IU mL-1 of laccase was obtained. Investigations of nine factors affecting laccase production through Plackett Burman design improved the titers to 6539 IU mL-1 . Five factors (incubation period, concentration of CuSO4 , temperature, moisture content, and particle size) were found significant which were optimized through Central Composite design leading to an improvement in the titers by ~5 folds (8841 IU mL-1 ). Biologically pretreated SB was fermented by a thermophilic bacterium, Neobacillus sedimentimangrovi UE25, that yielded 8.64 IU mL-1 of cellulase. Delignification and cellulose utilization were affirmed by structural analysis through FTIR and SEM. The synchronized process yielded higher titers of laccase and cellulase under SSF of SB with the minimum use of corrosive chemicals.