Biocatalytic Conversion of Lignocellulosic Water Hyacinth Biomass by Phanerochaete chrysosporium for Sustainable Ethanol Production

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) as a aquatic weed has become a source of concern for value addition. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of the weedy biomass in sustainable bioethanol production using Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The results indicated that P. chrysosporium significantly utilized 70.9% of cellulose and 70% of hemicellulose from raw lignocellulose of water hyacinth with significant microbial enzyme production of 1.26 IU/ml. Moreover, the microbial treatment resulted in a significant amount of soluble protein (194.30 mg/g) and reducing sugar (34.20 g/l). XRD, SEM and FTIR analyses revealed that the crystalinity of cellulose was increased with the microbial treatment and hence, the yield of sugar also. Under submerged fermentation, Saccharomyces cerevisiae produced a maximum of 20.17 g/l of ethanol. The promising results of the present study explored the microbial treatment with P. chrysosporium and fermentation with S. cerevisiae as a successful and sustainable method for ethanol production from lignocellulosic weedy biomass.