Cellulase production from thermophilic Myceliophythora hinnulea

Lignocellulosic biomass is potential renewable resource for monomeric sugars which can be produced by the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose with celluloytic enzyme. Cellulase is a group of enzymes including endoglucanase, exoglucanase and -glucosidase, which act synergistically to hydrolyze cellulose to glucose. These enzymes can be produced by a large diversity of microorganisms. mainly by funguses. In this study, production of cellulase enzyme was optimized by response surface methadology under submerge conditions using thermophilic Myceliophthora hinnulea. The effect of pH (4.0 - 5.25 - 6.5), temperature (35°C - 45°C - 55°C), spore size (1x106 - 5x109 - 1x1010) and culture age (24 h– 60 h – 96 h) on the cellulase production in terms of filter paper activity was investigated. At optimum conditions, three pretreated lignocellulosic feedstocks (hazelnut shells, sunflower stalks and poppy stalks) were used to culture Myceliophthora hinnulea. The optimum levels of parameters for maximizing cellulase activity were found as 6.1 for pH, 38oC, 1x1010 inoculum size and of 24 h culture age. At these conditions, the cellulase activity was 0.216 FPU/ml. Maximum cellulase activity (0.181 FPU/ml) was reached using 2 % hazelnut shells after 7 days.