Corncob Biodelignification Process Using White Rot Fungi

Abstract

Corncob has a big potency to be converted become simple sugars which can be used as raw materials for various products such asbioethanol and xylitol. Biodelignification is a process to remove lignin from cellulosic materials by using microorganism like fungi, bacteria or enzyme. Delignification need to be done because lignin is main barrier at lignocellulose hydrolysis process. Some types of white rot fungi often applied for delignification are Schizophyllum commune, Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Pleurotus EB9. The aims of this research is to obtain the best type of white rot fungi,to get optimum concentration of mycelia, the bestconcentration of added glucose and the most optimum incubation time for the chosen fungi. The results of preliminary researchshowed that corncob delignification by fungi Phanerochaete chrysosporiumwas the best one by decreasing of lignin content up to 26.07% andby giving degradation of dry weight up to 28.22%. Therefore, Phanerochaete chrysosporium was chosen to be used in main research. Results of the main research showed that optimum condition for delignification of corncob by Phanerochaete chrysosporium wasas follows: incubation time of 24.25 days, concentration of mycelia 1.89 ml/10 g substrate, and concentration of glucose added was 0.23 g/10 g substrate. From these conditions,the obtained value of lignin rate ratio to holocellulose was 0.210689 g/g.