Isolation of cellulosic biomass degrading microorganisms from different sources for low cost biofuel production

Current fuel ethanol research and development deals with process engineering trends for improving biotechnological production of ethanol. Recently, a large amount of studies regarding the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass as a good feedstock for producing fuel ethanol is being carried out worldwide. The plant biomass is mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The main challenge in the conversion of biomass into ethanol is the complex, rigid and harsh structures which require efficient process and cost effective to break down. The isolation of microorganisms is one of the means for obtaining enzymes with properties suitable for industrial applications. For these reasons, crude cultures containing cellulosic biomass degrading microorganisms were isolated from rice field soil, cow farm soil and rotten rice straw from cow farm. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), xylan and Avicel (microcrystalline cellulose) degradation zone of clearance on agar platefrom rice field soil resulted approximately at 25 mm, 24 mm and 22 mm respectively. As for cow farm soil, CMC, xylan and Avicel degradation clearancezone on agar plate resulted around at 24mm, 23mm and 21 mm respectively. Rotten rice straw from cow farm also resulted for CMC, xylan and Avicel degradation zone almost at 24 mm, 23 mm and 22 mm respectively. The objective of this study is to isolatebiomass degrading microbial strains having good efficiency in cellulose hydrolysis and observed the effects of different substrates (CMC, xylan and Avicel) on the production of cellulase enzymes (endo-glucanase, exo-glucanase, cellobiase, xylanase and avicelase) for producing low cost biofuel from cellulosic materials.