Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

India is rich in agricultural productivity with our economy mostly dependent on it. In the total process of obtaining food product large amount of plant residues are left which are rarely utilized beneficially. Majority of them are just burned as fuel sources which leads to only partial utilization of energy and also is a major cause of air pollution at plenty of places. Besides, this issue enhanced utilization of fossil fuel is leading to regular depletion of reserved resources. Present work focuses on enhanced utilization of agricultural waste towards development of sustainable and renewable fuel resource. Majorly agricultural waste like, wheat bran, sugarcane bagasse, rice husk etc. have been studied.Consortiums of 14 bacterial strains and one fungal strain in various combinations towards production of maximal monosaccharide sugars was developed and subsequent ethanol production by Pichia stipitis NCIM 3497 were evaluated. About 300 mg/ml ethanol could be obtained by stepwise saccharification and fermentation process. Novel bacterial isolates found in the study are Bacillus altitudinus, Bacillus stratosphaericus, Lysini bacillus sp., Bacillus sp., Paeni bacillus sp., Bacillus cereus, Bacillus aerophilus, Bacillus thuringiensis. All these have tremendous potential of hydrolyzing plant polysaccharides. Our work is in progress and we expect potential contribution of Indian agricultural waste towards biofuel production.

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