Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Waste Disposal & Sustainable Energy (2019) 1:289–299 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42768-019-00019-7 ARTICLE Utility of starchy, lignocellulosics and cellulosics hydrolysates on cellulase production under liquid state fermentation Nitin Verma 1  · Vivek Kumar 1  · M. C. Bansal 1 Received: 3 September 2019 / Revised: 30 October 2019 / Accepted: 12 November 2019 / Published online: 27 November 2019 © Zhejiang University Press 2019 Abstract Starch is one of the most abundant renewable carbohydrate reserves of higher plants. It can be used to produce many valuable food products in the food processing industry. Furthermore, starch is also used as an important feedstock in the fermentation industry to produce value-added products. Lignocellulosic materials such as agriculture and forestry wastes are considered as a renewable feedstock for bioenergy production through a biochemical conversion process. Converting lignocellulosic biomass into fuels and chemicals entail a physicochemical pretreatment of the biomass, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of the polysaccharide components such as cellulose and hemicellulose into monomeric sugars. These sugars can then be further fermented into other desired compounds of interest. During the deconstruction processes, various inhibitory compounds are released due to the partial over-degradation of lignocellulose biomass, which inhibits the cell growth and metabolic capacity of fermenting strains. Cellulosic materials such as waste paper in large quantities can also be used as potentially cheap feed- stock for sustainable production of value-added products. The present investigation is mainly focused on the utility of starchy hydrolysates (wheat, potato, and rice) and lignocellulosics hydrolysates (bagasse and wheat straw) in cellulase production under liquid state fermentation. It also depicts the potential of cellulosic hydrolysate (waste newspaper) in product formation. Keywords Starch hydrolysate · Bagasse hydrolysate · Wheat straw hydrolysate · Waste newspaper hydrolysate · Cellulases Introduction Bioconversion of lignocellulosic and starchy waste bio- mass is still a signifcant area of research. It holds tremen- dous potential for sustainable product formation to meet the increasing worldwide demand. The large quantities of byproducts generated during the processing of plant food involve economic and environmental problems due to their high volumes and disposal costs. Agricultural wastes are important feedstocks under such categories as this can be converted into commercially important and valuable prod- ucts such as ethanol, glucose, enzymes, and single-cell pro- teins [1–4]. Cellulases are the main industrial enzyme used to depolymerize plant biomass into simple sugars. Starch is a polymer of glucose and mainly consists of amylose and amylopectin [5]. Wheat starch is comprised of around 1/4th amylose and around 3/4th amylopectin with little proportions of protein (0.8%) and lipid degradations (0.2%). It consists of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds [6]. Amylose (16–30%) is essentially a linear polymer in which the glucose residues are connected by the α-1, 4 linkages while the other main component of starch is amylopectin (65–85%), which is a larger and branched molecule having both α-1, 4 and α-1, 6 linkages [7, 8]. Acid treatment of various starches showed a decre- ment in amylopectin fraction and increment in amylose frac- tion. During the initial stages of hydrolysis, the branching point of amylopectin was degraded and further both alpha 1 → 4 and1 → 6 linkages were hydrolyzed [9]. Luo et al. (2018) [10] reported the feasibility of butanol production from wheat starch wastewater by Clostridium acetobutyl- icum. Soluble inducers derived from starch were investi- gated for cellulase production by T. reesei. Acid-hydrolysed starch was found to be most efective [11]. Izmirlioglu and Demirci (2015) [12] reported the enhanced bioethanol pro- duction from industrial potato waste. Acid hydrolysis of potato tuber-based starch at diferent ratios of plant mate- rial to the acid solution was investigated and found that fnal * Nitin Verma nitiniit2008@gmail.com 1 Department of Paper Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee Saharanpur Campus, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh 247001, India