Abstract—Lignocellulose wastes dominate our earth being considered as a serious cause for environmental pollution issues. However the lignocellulosic biomass can be converted to higher value-added products such as biofuel, enzymes etc. usually requiring a multi-step processing such as pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation etc. Cellulose is major polysaccharides in lignocellulosic biomass wastes being converted into simple sugars usually requiring synergistic action of multiple cellulolytic enzymes from different bacteria. Thermophiles act as a better source towards better lignocellulose biomass utilization for fermentation for various value-added product as well as biofuel production. Several researches were conducted on cellulolytic activity of thermophilic bacteria using various substrates. However the present study is mainly based on waste utilization containing cellulose as major component into different byproducts through cellulase enzymes from thermophiles which would enlighten the present market towards waste utilization ultimately combating the environmental pollution. Index Terms—Lignocellulose biomass, enzymes, thermophiles, cellulase. I. INTRODUCTION The greatest challenges of twenty-first century is to meet the growing demand of energy for transportation, heating and industrial processes, and to provide raw materials for chemical industries in sustainable ways Wastes are present in many forms all around our environments which can be better utilized using microbes for various activities finally converting them into biodegradable form before releasing to the environment ultimately reducing the pollution problem. Lignocellulosic materials act as a major component of environmental wastes because of rising urbanization which are essential to the functioning of modern industrial societies. Recently lignocellulosic biomasses have gained increasing research interests and special importance because of their renewable nature [1], [2]. Therefore, the huge amounts of lignocellulosic biomass can potentially be converted into different high value products including bio-fuels, value added fine chemicals, and cheap energy sources for microbial fermentation and enzyme production [1], [3], [4], etc. II. BIOTECHNOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE OF LIGNOCELLULOSIC BIOMASS From the biotechnological point of view a wide variety of lignocellulosic biomass resources are available as potential candidate that are also convertible into high value bi-products like bio-ethanol/bio-fuels, enzymes etc. There is a vast improvement of green biotechnology occurred related to lignocellulose biomass in the current scenario. A considerable amount of such materials as waste byproducts are being generated through agricultural, domestic, municipal and industrial practices. Sadly, much of the lignocellulosic biomass is often disposed of by burning, which is not restricted to developing countries alone. Recently lignocellulosic biomasses have gained increasing research interests and special importance because of their renewable nature. The ever increasing costs of fossil fuels and their greenhouse effects are creating a core demand to explore alternative cheaper and eco-friendly bio-fuels resources as a strategy for reducing global warming [1]-[3]. Ligninolytic, cellulases and hemicellulases are important industrial enzymes having numerous applications and biotechnological potential for various industries including chemicals, fuel, food, brewery and wine, animal feed, textile and laundry, pulp and paper and agriculture [5], [6]. III. THERMOPHILIC BACTERIA Recent research is mainly focused on thermophiles because of their better industrial utilization. Tolerance to high temperatures is one of the major covetable properties for cellulase in industrial activities [7]. For example; a) in textile industry, during biopolishing of cotton, the required enzyme would be highly stable at temperature up to 100°C [8]; (b) in food industry, unsatisfactory acidic depolymerization of cellulose leads to the increased demand of thermostable cellulases [9]. There are various earlier reports available on thermophilic bacteria having cellulolytic properties from various natural environments. For eg. Bacillus subtilis [10], Bacillus licheniformis MVS1 [11], Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus [12], Clostridium thermocellum, Paenibacillus sp., Pyrococcus horikoshi etc. [10]–[12]. Many thermophiles having optimum temperature range between 65-70°C may include neutral to alkalithermophilic (pH 6-10), acidothermophilic (pH 2-5) as per the pH requirement. Thermophiles: A Bio-Gadget towards Waste Reclamation through Cellulase Production Kalpana Sahoo, Himadri Bhusan Bal, Rajesh Kumar Sahoo, Pratyasha Rout, and Enketeswara Subudhi International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, Vol. 9, No. 12, December 2018 394 doi: 10.18178/ijesd.2018.9.12.1136 Manuscript received December 14, 2017; revised November 15, 2018. This work was supported in part by SERB grant awarded to Dr. Kalpana Sahoo of Siksha O Anusandhan (Deemed to be University) having Award No. (YSS/2014/000413). K. Sahoo, R. K.Sahoo, P. Rout, and E. Subudhi are with the Centre of Biotechnology, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, Odisha India (e-mail: kalpanactc@soa.ac.in, rajeshcbt22@gmail.com, pratyasharout67@gmail.com, enketeswarasubudhi@soa.ac.in). H. B. Bal is with the National Reference Laboratory-TB Regional Medical Research Centre (ICMR) Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India (e-mail: drhbbal@gmail.com).