A kinetic study of enzymatic hydrolysis of oil palm biomass for fermentable sugar using polyethylene glycol (PEG) immobilized cellulase

In this work,enzymatic hydrolysis by cellulase in a soluble and an immobilized form was studied to convert lignocellulosic oil palm empty fruit bunch (efb) biomass into fermentable sugars as a feedstock for bioethanol production. the cellulase was covalently immobilized with activated and functionalized polyethylene glycol (peg) via glutaraldehyde coupling method. as a whole,the immobilized cellulase displayed 50% higher efficiency over free cellulase,in reducing sugar recovery during hydrolysis reactions at ph of 4.8 and temperature of 50°c. from the kinetic study,it showed that michaelis constant (km) and limiting velocity (vmax) of immobilized cellulase were 179.2 mg/ml and 33.5 mg/ml.min respectively,comparable with the value for free cellulose,171.8 mg/ml and 34.5 mg/ml.min respectively. this result could be attributed to the effect of peg on the binding cellulase to substrate desorb substrates,and enables free interaction of cellulase to hydrolyse cellulose maximally. © 2016 penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.