Production of fermentable sugar from Kappaphycus Sp.

Abstract

Macroalgae or seaweed is being considered as promising feedstock for fermentable sugar production due to high olysaccharides content. Hence, this study was carried out to produce high yield of fermentable sugars from acid hydrolysis and enzymatic hydrolysis of red seaweed Kappaphycus sp.. In order to achieve this objective, the effectiveness of Kappaphycus sp., hydrolysis process was studied by using chemical treatments, followed by enzymatic treatments. The Kappaphycus sp. were hydrolysed in different type of acid, acid concentration and followed by different concentration of substrate. After acid hydrolysis, it was found out that the optimal acid hydrolysis is at 0.3% (v/v) of acetic acid with 0.6 g/ml and pre-treated for 2 hour at 121˚C which produced highest glucose concentration (0.84 g/L). As for the combination of chemical and enzymatic hydrolysis, dosage of enzyme use and incubation temperature were studied. The optimum condition for cellulase activity was with 0.06 ml of enzyme and 45˚C incubation temperature which produced the highest glucose concentration (1.32 g/L) with an increment of 0.49 g/L from the chemical hydrolysis alone. In conclusion, acid and enzymatic hydrolysis of Kappaphycus sp. can produce higher fermentable sugar and thus, it can further enhance the production of carbohydrate bioproduct from red seaweed