Self-standardization of quality of bacterial cellulose produced by Medusomyces gisevii in nutrient media derived from Miscanthus biomass

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) was synthesized from biomass of Miscanthus grown in West Siberia. Miscanthus biomass was pretreated at atmospheric pressure with 4 wt.% solutions of HNO₃ and NaOH in one and two stages. The effect of four methods of the pretreatment of the feedstock on BC yield and properties was examined. The resultant pulps were subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis with commercial CelloLux-A and BrewZyme BGX enzymes. Biosynthesis of BC was run under static and non-sterile conditions using Medusomyces gisevii Sa-12. The two-stage pretreatment of Miscanthus biomass gave a 20 % increase in BC production compared to the single-stage pretreatment. The resultant BC exhibited a high crystallinity index (88-93 %) and an extraordinarily high content of allomorph Iα (99-100 %), irrespective of the pretreatment method; therefore, it has been revealed for the first time that the Medusomyces gisevii Sa-12 symbiotic culture is capable of self-standardization against the quality of produced BC.

Keywords: Bacterial cellulose; Chemical pretreatment; Enzymatic hydrolysis; Medusomyces gisevii; Miscanthus biomass; X-ray diffraction.