Exploration of cheese whey as nutritional supplement in lignocellulosic [Paddy straw] ethanol production

The present study aims at utilization of paddy straw for ethanol production along with cheese whey as yeast nutrient. Pretreatment of paddy straw (0.5 mm mesh size) with 2% sodium hydroxide at 15 psi for 1 h resulted in about 82% lignin removal along with 82.76% cellulose and 28.46% hemicellulose recovery. Hydrolysis of delignified paddy straw in 5% cheese whey using commercial cellulase loaded@ 6.8FPU/g resulted in 76.3% sugar release after 2 h incubation at 50°C. Fermentation of paddy straw hydrolysate by co-culture of Candida utilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 1% (w/v) concentration resulted in production of 335 ml ethanol/kg delignified paddy straw after 72 h fermentation at 35°C that was about 8.76% higher than mono-culture fermentation by Candida utilis (308 ml/kg delignified paddy straw).