MAIN CONCLUSION: X-ray microtomography results revealed that delignification process damaged the oil palm fibers, which correlated well with reduction of lignin components and increase of the phenolic content. Biodegradation investigation of natural fibers normally focuses on physico-chemical analysis, with less emphasis on physical aspect like fiber structures affect from microbial activity. In this work, the performance of Pycnoporus sanguineus to delignify oil palm empty fruit bunch fibers through solid-state fermentation utilizing various ratio of POME sludge was reported. In addition to tensile testing, physico-chemical and X-ray microtomography (µ-CT) analyses on the oil palm fibers were conducted to determine the effectiveness of the degradation process. The best ratio of fiber to fungi (60:40) was chosen based on the highest lignin loss and total phenolic content values and further investigation was performed to obtain fermentation kinetics data of both laccase and manganese peroxidase. µ-CT results revealed that delignification process damaged the pre-treated and untreated fibers structure, as evident from volume reduction after degradation process. This is correlated with reduction of lignin component and increase of the phenolic content, as well as lower stress-strain curves of the pre-treated fibers compared to the untreated ones (from tensile testing). It is suggested that P. sanguineus preferred to consume the outer layer of the fiber, before it penetrates through the cellular structure of the inner fiber.
The ability of white-rot fungus, Pycnoporus sanguineus to adsorb copper (II) ions from aqueous solution is investigated in a batch system. The live fungus cells were immobilized into Ca-alginate gel to study the influence of pH, initial metal ions concentration, biomass loading and temperature on the biosorption capacity. The optimum uptake of Cu (II) ions was observed at pH 5 with a value of 2.76mg/g. Biosorption equilibrium data were best described by Langmuir isotherm model followed by Redlich-Peterson and Freundlich models, respectively. The biosorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion equations. The thermodynamic parameters enthalpy change (10.16kJ/mol) and entropy change (33.78J/molK) were determined from the biosorption equilibrium data. The FTIR analysis showed that OH, NH, CH, CO, COOH and CN groups were involved in the biosorption of Cu (II) ions onto immobilized cells of P. sanguineus. The immobilized cells of P. sanguineus were capable of removing Cu (II) ions from aqueous solution.
This study examined the potential of untreated and alkali-pretreated sugarcane bagasse (SCB) in cellulase, reducing sugar (RS) and fungal biomass production via solid state fermentation (SSF) using Pycnoporus sanguineus. The impact of the composition, structure and cellulase adsorption ability of SCB on the production of cellulase, RS and fungal biomass was investigated. From the morphological and compositional analyses, untreated SCB has relatively more structural changes with a higher percentage of depolymerisation on the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin content compared to alkali-pretreated SCB. Thus, untreated SCB favoured the production of cellulase and fungal biomass whereas alkali-pretreated SCB yielded a higher amount of RS. The composition and morphology of untreated SCB did not encourage RS production and this suggested that RS produced during SSF might be consumed in a faster rate by the more abundantly grown fungus. Besides that, alkali-pretreated SCB with higher cellulase adsorption ability could have adsorbed the cellulase produced and resulted in a lower cellulase titre. In short, the production of specific bioproducts via SSF is dependent on the structure and composition of the substrate applied.
Five species of white rot fungi were screened for their capability to synthesize Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs). Three modes of AgNP bioreduction were developed. Pycnoporus sanguineus is found as a potential candidate for the synthesis of AgNPs with a yield at 98.9%. The synthesized AgNPs were characterized using UV-vis spectroscopy, DLS, FTIR, TEM, and SEM. Results showed that AgNP absorption band was located at a peak of 420 nm. Both the SEM and TEM confirmed that the formation of AgNPs were mainly spherical with average diameters of 52.8-103.3 nm. The signals of silver atoms' presence in the mycelium were observed by SEM-EDS spectrum.