Enhanced biodegradation of sugarcane bagasse by Clostridium thermocellum with surfactant addition

Abstract

Clostridium thermocellum is a potential strain in consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) for lignocellulose biorefinement, although its large-scale utilization is not economically available yet due to some problems such as low hydrolysis efficiency. Biodegradation of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) accompanied by accumulation of reducing sugars was remarkably improved with the addition of non-ionic surfactant to the CBP system using Clostridium thermocellum. The addition of 2.5 g L⁻¹ Triton X-100 resulted in an accumulation of 3.65 g L⁻¹ reducing sugars and a substrate degradation of 46.6%, which increased by approximately 36-fold and 1.2-fold, respectively, compared with control. Furthermore, the addition of Triton X-100 has little negative effect on hydrogen production in CBP using C. thermocellum. The result suggests that Triton X-100 is a most promising surfactant in improving the biodegradation of SCB, probably leading to a more efficient CBP in biorefinement.