| Summary: | Rice straw (RS) is one of the most abundant lignocellulosic waste by-products worldwide and provides an alternative substrate to produce useful chemicals such as bioethanol and lactic acid. However, higher enzyme loadings are needed to obtain a higher product yield, which makes the large-scale utilization economically difficult. The presence of non-ionic surfactants and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) during the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosics has been found to increase the conversion of cellulose into fermentable sugars. We have found that adding 0.2g g-1 substrate of polyoxyethylene(20) sorbitan monooleate (PSM) or high-mass PEG increased the sugar yield by 22% and 12%, respectively, when enzyme loading was at 10FPU g-1 for 24h. PSM behaved better than PEG when different substrate concentrations, temperatures, and enzyme loadings were investigated. PSM provides an opportunity to reduce enzyme dosage while still keeping the same extent of hydrolysis. We also investigated the effect of PSM on the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of pretreated RS to lactic acid. Results showed that addition of 0.7g L-1 PSM improved the lactic acid production by 24% compared to the reference without PSM addition at 72h.
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