Biological Pretreatment of Corn Stover for Enhancing Enzymatic Hydrolysis Using Thermoalkalotolerant Cellulolytic Enzymes Produced by Bacillus sp. P3

Abstract The biological pretreatment for the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomasses largely depends on an effective pretreatment process. A significant enhancement of enzymatic saccharification was obtained with corn stover using Bacillus sp. P3. The hemicellulose removal from corn stover by the strain Bacillus sp. P3 was evaluated for enhancing subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. Therefore, our study revealed that an alkaline resistant xylanase produced by Bacillus sp. P3 in fermentation broth led to a substantially enhanced hemicellulose removal rate from corn stover within pH 9.36–9.68. However, after 20 d pretreatment of corn stover by the strain P3, the glucan content was increased by 51% and the xylan content was decreased by 35%. After 72 h of saccharification using 20 U g− 1 of commercial cellulase, the yield of reducing sugar released from 20 d pretreated corn stover was increased by 56% in comparison to the untreated corn stover. Therefore, the use of the strain P3 could be a promising approach to pretreat corn stover for enhancing the enzymatic hydrolysis process of industrial bioenergy productions.