Cellulase Production by Pseudomonas fluorescens from Hexane Pretreated Waste Papers

Abstract

The organic content in most of the municipal solid wastes primarily consists of post-consumer waste papers which are rich source of carbohydrates. The present study has focused on investigation of cellulase production by Pseudomonas fluorescens from different types of waste papers namely waste office paper (WOP), waste cardboard (WCB), waste newspaper (WNP) and waste tea cup (WTC) after pre-treatment with n-hexane. The waste papers at a solid loading of 5% (w/v) produced glucose in the range of 5.24 g/L (WTC) to 6.43 g/L (WOP) from n-hexane pre-treatment at 80oC for 30 minutes. The structural changes of pre-treated waste papers were studied by using Scanning Electron Microscope. Pseudomonas fluorescens (10% v/w) inoculated to pre-treated waste papers with 70% moisture content was able to produce maximum cellulase at 15 days of incubation with 5.10 CMCase/mL from WOP followed by cardboard and newspaper with similar production of 4.03 CMCase/mL and WTC with production of 3.82 CMCase/mL. � 2023 World Research Association. All rights reserved.