Application of wood rot wild mushrooms in bioethanol production from sawdust of sawmills of Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise, Ethiopia

In this research sawdust samples of Ecalyptus globulus and Cupressus lusitanica were evaluated for bioethanol productions. The sawdust samples were first pretreated with three white rot fungi alone and also by combining the white rot fungi with mild NaOH and steam. Both the fungal and combined pretreated samples were then hydrolyzed with hydrolytic enzymes from three cellulolytic wood rot fungi. Finally, the resulting sugars were fermented into bioethanol using S. cerevisae in anaerobic conditions. Results obtained, in general, indicated that bioethanol amount produced in all cases of sawdust management was significantly higher than the amount obtained from the un-pretreated sawdust samples (p<0.05). In both fungal alone and combined pretreated sawdust samples, higher ethanol yield was obtained from E. globulus than from C. lusitanica. Similarly, combination with NaOH showed better bioethanol yield over combination with steam. The highest alcohol concentration was obtained when pretreated NaOH-006-2G and hydrolyzed with enzymes from 033-1G and followed by results when pretreated with 005-1G and 003-2G, respectively, and hydrolyzed with enzymes from 033-1G.