Lignin Biodegradation and the Production of Ethyl Alcohol from Cellulose

摘要

During the last few years our group has been engaged in developing a biochemical process for the conversion of lignocellulosic materials to ethyl alcohol. Lignin is a barrier to complete cellulose saccharification in this process, but chemical and physical delignification steps are too expensive to be used at the present time. An enzymatic delignification process might be attractive for several reasons: little energy would be expected to be needed, enzymes could be recovered and reused, and useful chemicals might be produced from dissolved lignin. A number of thermophilic and thermotolerant fungi were examined for the ability to rapidly degrade lignocellulose in order to find an organism whcih produced an active lignin-degrading enzyme system. Chryosporium pruinosum and Sporotrichum pulverulentum were found to be active lignocellulose degraders, and C. pruinosum was chosen for further study. Lignin and carbohydrate were degraded when the substrate remained moistened by, but not submerged in, the liquid medium. Attempts were made to demonstrate a cell-free lignin degrading system by both extraction and pressing of cultures grown on moist lignocellulose. Carbohydrate-degrading activity was found but not lignin-degrading activity. This led us to ask whether diffusible lignin-degrading activity could be demonstrated in this organism. The data indicate that the lignin degradation system, or one or more of its components, produced by this organism is either unstable, non-diffusible, or inactive at small distances (about 1 mm) from growing hyphae. At present, studies are being conducted using diffusion cultures to select mutants of C. pruinosum that do produce a diffusible lignin degradation system. We are also examining a number of mesophilic lignin-degrading molds for this ability. (ERA citation 06:018262)