Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-02087-4 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Characteristics of adapted and non‑adapted Candida tropicalis InaCC Y799 during fermentation of detoxifed and undetoxifed hemicellulosic hydrolysate from sugarcane trash for xylitol production Maulida Oktaviani 1  · Wibowo Mangunwardoyo 2  · Euis Hermiati 1 Received: 13 August 2021 / Revised: 25 October 2021 / Accepted: 8 November 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021 Abstract In addition to being efective in extracting xylose from hemicellulose, acid treatment has the potential to produce compounds that inhibit yeast growth during fermentation. Detoxifcation of hemicellulose hydrolysate and short-term adaptation of yeast to hemicellulose hydrolysate could be applied to overcome this problem in order to increase xylitol production from the hydrolysate. Most studies usually investigated only the efect of detoxifcation or adaptation of yeast only, and did not com- pare the two treatments in one particular study. This study investigated and compared the efect of detoxifcation process and adapting Candida tropicalis InaCC Y799 to sugarcane trash hemicellulose hydrolysate on the production of xylitol during fermentation. The detoxifcation of hemicellulose hydrolysate was using 1% activated charcoal. The yeast adaptation was conducted by growing the yeast at 50% and 75% diluted sugarcane trash hydrolysate for 24 h. The non-adapted yeast was used in the fermentation of non-detoxifed and detoxifed hydrolysate, while the adapted yeast was used in the fermentation of non-detoxifed hydrolysate. The fermentation was conducted at 30 °C and 150 rpm for 72 h. The yeast adaptation in 75% hydrolysates and detoxifcation of fermentation medium produced higher xylitol yields (0.54–0.56 g xylitol/g initial xylose; 53.72–54.98% theoretical yield), in a shorter time (24 h) than did the adapted yeast to 50% hydrolysate and non-adapted yeast grown in non-detoxifed medium (0.51–0.57 g xylitol/g initial xylose or 50.54–56.59% theoretical yield in 48 h). Therefore, the adaptation of yeast in the higher concentration of hemicellulose hydrolysate (75% hydrolysate) could be used as an alternative strategy to enhance xylitol production beside the detoxifcation of medium prior to fermentation. Both methods could give the same results in enhancing the xylitol production. Keywords Adaptation · Detoxifcation · Hemicellulosic hydrolysate · Sugar cane trash · Xylitol production 1 Introduction Sugar is one of the important food commodities in Indone- sia. Until 2019, the estimated sugar plantation in Indonesia reached 413,054 ha, with an average yield of 70–80 tonnes of cane per ha [1]. Besides sugarcane bagasse (SB), sug- arcane trash (ST) is also the major crop residue, which is usually left or burnt in open land before harvesting [2]. The average of this residue achieve 10–30% of the total biomass of sugarcane [3, 4]. Hariyono et. al. [5] estimated that the amount of unused ST in Indonesia is about 11.9 tonnes per ha. Sugarcane trash consists of fresh leaves, dry leaves, and tops [6]. Only small farmers used this ST for animal feed due to the rough texture and sharp edges of the leaves [7]. Most mills burnt this ST because of the difculties of farmers dur- ing cane harvesting and ratoon management. This practice caused the environmental problem such as air pollution and decrease of soil organic matter [4, 8]. Like other lignocellulosic biomass, sugarcane leaves con- tain cellulose (35 to 50%), hemicellulose (20 to 35%), and lignin (15 to 20%) [9]. The major component in hemicel- lulose is xylan, which could be hydrolyzed to xylose, and further fermented to xylitol. Therefore, the high content of hemicellulose in sugarcane trash makes it a potential * Maulida Oktaviani maulida.oktaviani@brin.go.id; maulida.oktaviani26@gmail.com 1 Research Center for Biomaterials, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Jl. Raya Bogor, Km 46, Cibinong, West Java 16911, Indonesia 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, West Java 16424, Indonesia