An industrial-scale cellulolytic enzymes production process by submerged fermentation was designed using sugarcane bagasse as the substrate and Trichoderma reesei as the producing microorganism. The fermentation step was selected as the main process and various substrate initial concentrations and fed batch strategies were analyzed in order to determine the best operating conditions to enhance enzymatic production. Starting from the microorganism growth and enzymatic production kinetic models, simulations of the fermentation process were run by varying the initial substrate concentration between 10 and 70 g/L and introducing different feeding regimes. The best results were obtained when feeding the substrate at 70 and 120 hours into the process, producing a mixture with an enzymatic activity of 10 FPU/mL after 180 hours of operation. The main and seed fermenters were designed from these results. Design considerations and operating conditions for the solids separation and enzyme concentration units were defined based on the composition of the final fermentation mixture in order to obtain a concentrated enzymatic cocktail with an activity of 160 FPU/mL. An economic analysis of the global process for increasing production capacities determined the feasibility to install a facility for cellulolytic enzymes production from sugarcane bagasse appended to a biorefinery located in northern Peru that processes 4 300 MT sugarcane per day.
Diseño de un proceso de producción de enzimas celulolíticas a partir de bagazo de caña de azúcar
Venegas Montañez, R. M. (Author). 2021
Student thesis: Tesis de Pregrado