Cellulase Production by Aspergillus niger through Solid-State Fermentation using Urban Lignocellulosic Waste and Microalgae Biomass as Substrate

In this manuscript, cellulase was produced through solid-state fermentation by Aspergillus niger using urban lignocellulosic waste supplemented with Chlorella vulgaris biomass as substrate. The crude enzymatic extract was extracted from the solid phase using citrate buffer 50mM and clarified through fractional precipitation using ethanol. The lignocellulosic waste was collected locally and was composed mainly by grasses and fallen leaves of Pithecellobium dulce and Moringa oleifera Lam – which are abundantly available and have no commercial value. The results have shown that the biomass allowed the microorganism to produce a higher amount of the enzymes of interest and that the protein profile differ significatively from the experiment with no microalgal biomass supplementation. The fractional precipitation showed that at 70% ethanol (m/m), specific activity results are comparable to those using synthetic substrate, reaching 78.65 U/mg and 16.11 U/mg for CMCase and FPase, respectively.