Special Abstracts / Journal of Biotechnology 150S (2010) S1–S576
ilar problems could be found in other banana-producing countries.
Several studies have been done about the biogas production based
on fruit residues. Nevertheless, only few of them correlate the
organic substrate concentration and the nutrient content with the
biogas yield produced under different bio-additives influences.
Therefore, the objective of this research work was to evaluate
the biogas potential of banana waste in micro-scale reactors under
thermophilic conditions (55 ◦ C) using several bio-additives alone
or combined. For this purpose, local banana (Musa sp.) in a concen-
tration of 6 g of volatile total solids by liter (VTS/L) and different
bio-additives were used. The laboratory analysis and the digestion
procedure were conducted according to standard methods.
Means univariate and multivariate statistical analysis was
determined which of the used bio-additives have significant influ-
ence on the potential for biogas production from banana waste.
doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2010.08.437
[P-B.85]
High-throughput sequencing approach provides insight into a
novel route to new biofuel bioreactors
Á. Túri 1 , T. Kupai 1,∗ , G. Maróti 2 , I. Nagy 3 , B. Gór 1 , B. Uzonyi 1
1 DEKUT R&D Non-Profit Organization, Hungary
2 Institute for Plant Genomics, Human Biotechnology and Bioenergy,
Zoltán Bay Foundation for Applied Research, Hungary
3 SeqOmics Biotechnology Ltd., Hungary
Keywords: Cellulase enzyme; Metagenomic; Bioalcohol
The oil prices are constantly rising and with forecasts of the
approaching run out of oil supplies, there is a demanding need to
reduce the dependency from petroleum. Hence, a quest for more
efficient methods of generating biofuel has been recently boosted.
Accordingly, our objective is to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis of
cellulosic biomass (e.g. corn or wheat straw) so that it can be used as
primary material for bioalcohol production. Thus, a metagenomic
approach has been applied, in order to identify novel cellulases that
can be utilized for turning plants into combustible fuel sources.
For this, samples were collected from bovine rumen and silage,
anaerobic milieus where cellulose hydrolysis is intensive and com-
plete cellulose degradation occurs due to the microflora. DNA
isolation was performed directly from the environmental sam-
ples and used for metagenomic DNA library preparation. Clones
uniquely representing the DNA of the microflora were sequenced
with ABI SOLiD V3 Plus System which resulted in 70 million
reads. The gained data was processed with in-house developed
algorithms seeking for sequences encoding potentially efficient
cellulases. Selection of putative cellulases was done by screen-
ing the aligned sequences primarily for homology with known
cellulase sequences and enzyme-specific domains. Following the
sequence-related structure, function and stability prediction, the
clones containing the pinpointed cellulase genes were picked. The
two most promising cellulase genes were selected and built in an
expression strain. After purification, the produced enzymes were
tested for substrate specificity and enzymeactivity.
Biochemical analysis of cellulase function proved that our
metagenomic approach using the sequence-based screening is
applicable for identifying new enzymes. Our findings show that
the high-throughput sequencing approach can lead to the identifi-
cation of novel cellulase enzymes.
doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2010.08.438
S169
[P-B.86]
Continuous ethanol fermentation using immobilized yeast
Q.D. Nguyen ∗ , G. Gurin, Á. Hoschke
Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Keywords: Biofuel; Immobilized cells; Ethanol; Continuous process
Introduction: Brewing, distilling and biofuel industries are eco-
nomically powerful and thus have always been in the forefront
of technological development. The use of an immobilized yeast
cell system for alcoholic fermentation is an attractive and rapidly
expanding research area because of the additional technical and
economical advantages compared to the use of traditional batch
process with free cells including rapid processing and high volu-
metric productivity as well as low capital and production costs.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the continuous ethanol fer-
mentation system applying immobilized yeast.
Methods: Adsorption method was applied for immobilization
of yeast cells on SIKUG glass porous carriers. Carbohydrates and
alcohols were analysed using HPLC technique.
Results: According to scanning microscopic pictures and drop-
ping of cell concentration, all tested yeast strains were able
to immobilize onto surface of carriers. Laboratory packed-bed
bioreactor with 1L working volume was design and created. The
production of ethanol was steady after 24 hours of operation. Biore-
actor was able to operate up to 250 g/L concentration substrate. In
the case of glucose substrate (product of starch hydrolysis), opti-
mal flow rate and substrate concentration were found to be 32 ml/h
and 180 g/L, respectively. The productivity of ethanol was 78 g/L for
180 g/L glucose substrate. In the case of Jerusalem artichoke sub-
strate, maximal ethanol conversion was 99% at flow rate 55 ml/h.
The productivity of ethanol was 64 g/L and 61 g/L for 135 g/L and
125 g/L at flow rate 60 ml/h, respectively. Bioreactor was stable
more than 3 months under operation at 30 o C.
Discussion: SIKUG carriers are capable to immobilise yeast cells
onto surface that can be applied to design packed-bed bioreactor
for modelling continuous alcohol fermentation system. Applying
this system the technological time of primary fermentation process
can be shortened, thus increase the productivity of ethanol. This
model can be used to scale up to a larger scale packed-bed column
bioreactor for production of bioethanol.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by National Office
for Research and Technology through project acronym PALINKAH
and Bolyai Research Grant from Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2010.08.439
[P-B.87]
Cellulase production by semi-continuous solid state fermenta-
tion (SSF)
Yujie Zhou 1,∗ , Jianan Zhang 1 , Lingmei Dai 1 , Tiegang Hu 2 , Dehua
Liu 1 , Yonggang Wang 2
1Tsinghua University, China
2China University of Mining and Technology, China
Keywords: Cellulase; Solid state fermentation; Semi-continuous
SSF could offer some apparent economic and engineering advan-
tages over the submerged fermentation (SmF), which include
higher concentration of products, lower cost, less waste output
and so on. SSF processes are usually operated in batch mode, and
the disadvantages of this mode are the requirement for regular re-
inoculation and the low productivity in repeated batch operation.
In this study, two kinds of semi-continuous SSF processes were