Characterization and Pretreatment of Cotton Gin Waste

Abstract

Bioethanol produced from various lignocellulosic materials, such as wood, agricultural or forest residues, has the potential to be a valuable substitute for, or a complement to gasoline. One of the crucial steps in the ethanol production is the hydrolysis of the hemicellulose and cellulose to monomer sugars. In order to make the raw material accessible to the enzymes some kind of pretreatment is necessary. During the last ten years a large number of pretreatment methods have been developed. White rot fungi has the capability to separate the cellulose and hemicelluloses component from the complex lignin.
In the present work the white rot fungi Pleuorotus ostreatus has shown maximum ligninase positive activity, Hence Pleuorotus ostreatus has been used to carry out pretreatment experiments for ethanol production and it has shown a maximum lignin degradation capacity of around 56.82% at optimum conditions of 30oC; 5pH; 200rpm; 3weeks age of inoculum and 30ml/10gm moisture content.