Synergistic effect of pretreatment and hydrolysis enzymes on the production of fermentable sugars from date palm lignocellulosic waste

The sequential addition of the enzymes, laccase for lignin degrading, followed by xylanase for hemicelluloses hydrolysis, then cellulase for cellulose hydrolysis, was compared to the synergistic action of using the three enzymes together. It was shown that the reducing sugars yield increased from 5.6% using cellulase only to 45.6% by pretreatment with laccase and xylanase, prior to the enzymatic hydrolysis. A higher conversion of 60% was achieved by using the three enzymes together for the same incubation period. The proposed synergistic enzymes approach is a simpler and less energy intensive alternative compared to the conventional lignocelluloses pretreatment techniques.