Abstract
Over the past few years, there is an increasing demand for bio-butanol production using renewable resources through microbial fermentation. In our study, we isolated a high yielding butanol producing fungal strain Trichoderma atroviridae SS2 from soil. First half of the paper mainly deals with the xylanase production using newly isolated fungal strain Hypocrea lixii SS1 around an oil refinery plant. Media optimization for xylanase production was carried out using Plackett Burman design (PB) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) methods by changing the concentrations of carbonaceous, nitrogen and surfactant sources. Maximum yield of xylanases obtained were 34.67 U/ml, 38.36 U/ml, 37.18 U/ml using sunflower oil sludge (carbon source), peptone (nitrogen source), and Tween 80 (surfactant), respectively. The second half of the paper mainly deals with the butanol production using T. atroviridae SS2 along with the xylanase produced by H. lixii SS1. Influence of incubation time, microbial volume xylanase volume, pH and temperature were investigated on butanol production. A maximum butanol yield of 18.94 g/L was achieved using 80 g/L microbial culture, 4 ml xylanase and a 7 days incubation period respectively. A narrow peak obtained at 285 nm with a retention time of 28.38 min using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) confirms the presence of butanol.
