Wheat straw acid hydrolysate as a potential cost-effective feedstock for production of bacterial cellulose

BACKGROUND: Bacterial cellulose ( BC) is an extracellular biopolymer product of vinegar bacteria, which is widely used in many areas. However, problems of high production cost have prevented widescale extension of BC applications. In this work, BC was produced using wheat straw hydrolysates prepared by dilute acid hydrolysis instead of the usual carbon sources, with the aim of decreasing the production costs of BC. RESULTS: In order to remove microbial growth inhibitors, wheat straw hydrolysates were detoxified by treatment with various alkalis including calcium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and ammonia, and their combination with activated charcoal or laccase. Results showed that the detoxification effect using calcium hydroxide was much better than that with the other alkalis. The BC yield using hydrolysate treated with Ca(OH)(2) and activated charcoal was at least 50% higher than that using routine carbon sources. Additionally, the ions of Ca(2+) and Na(+) in the hydrolysates had important and positive effects on BC production while Cl(-) exhibited negative effects. CONCLUSION: Wheat straw was shown to be a suitable feedstock for BC production, and a process was established for BC production from lignocellulosic feedstocks using a detoxification treatment. (C) 2011 Society of Chemical Industry