Journal of Scientific & Indust ri al Research Vo1.58 , November 1999, pp 878-882 Studies on Commercial Aspects of Xylanase from Chainia Species Rita] Varma*, Sanjay Nene, B A Baliga Chemical Engineering Di vision, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune 411008, India and Cynthia Elias Biotechnology Laboratory, National Research Centre, Qu ebec, Canada 20 April 1999; accepted: 30 August 1 999 Production of xylanase from Chainia species in a fermenter was standardized to a one litre scale. The subs trate, wheat bran, was varied IT from 3 per cent to 5 per ce nt and th e pH profile monitored. Wh en 3 per cent and 4 per cent wheat bran was used the major portion of the xylan was utilized for biomass production. With 5 per cent substrate a maximum ac ti vity of 29.78 IUlml, in 72 h was achieved .The conditions were easily scaled up to 1 01. Many commerc ial orga ni c nitrogen sources were studied, at shake flask level, 2 per ce nt soybean meal supplemented with 0.2 per cent yeast extract, gave activities comparab le to when 2 per cent yeast extract was used in the media. Separation of enzyme from ferment at ion broth was tried by two methods, ultrafiltra ti on and solvent precipitation. U lt rafiltration was carried out using cellulose acetate membrane cut off 5000. However, a three-old concentra ti on of fermentation broth gave only a little over 50 per cent of the original xylanase ac ti vit y. The solvents used fo r precipitation of xylanase from fermentation broth were ethanol and acetone. Three volumes of e th anol gave 99 per cent xylanase recovery with a 20-fold increase in spec ific activi ty. Wherea s two volumes of acetone gave 93.5 per cent recovery with la-fold increase in specific activity. Xylanase activity in a clarified f erme ntati on broth, stored at 10" C, retained 90 per cent of the original activity, it reduced to half its value only after three month s. Introduction For commercial viability of a bioprocess, it is essential to have a scale up study of its production using optimal conditions and media composition. Downstream process in g is a major cost effective part of any bio technology process. A study for recovery of the prod uct fermentati on broth wo uld be an essential requirement for com mercialization of any process. Presently emphasis being on environment friendly processes, xylanase is being increasingly utilized as prebleachin g agent in paper and pulp industryl-J. The sclerotia l actinomyces Chainia (82-5-1) secretes extracellular, cellulase free, single species xylanase 4 and is a low molecular weight enzymes. Its extensive stability test has been carried out 6 . All these features make its utilization in paper and pulp industry an attractive possibility? In this paper we report the results of the features essential, for the eco nomical feasibility of this enzyme at industrial \. * Author for corresponde n ce sca le. The studi es include sca le -up in a fermenter; a shake flask study to replace toe yeast extract in media by cheaper nitrogen sources separation of product from fermenta tion broth and finally the stability of the enzyme. Materials and Method Fermenter Studies The details of the strai n maintenance and microbiolog ical features have been reported e arlier 8 .Studies on optimal fermenter conditions were carri ed out in a one litre Gallenkamp fermenter. The total working vol ume was made up to 700ml. A 7 d-old sporulating slant was used for inoculation s. The inoc ul um had, media composition -3 per cent wheat bran and I per ce nt yeast extr act, volume 7 per cent and 48 h-old. The volume of media in the fermenter was 600ml, which had wheat bran as the carbon source (varied from 3 per cent-5 per cent) and 1 per cent yeast extract as the nitrogen source. The fermenter cond itions were as follows initial pH was 6.5, 28° C, air 1-1.5 VVM, and agitation 200 ,