Sonication of olive pomace to improve xylanases production by SSF

Abstract

Olive mill wastes are an important environmental problem in the areas where they are generated. Portugal is an important producer of olive oil in the world, thus it is interesting to find the most suitable valorization strategy to exploit their wastes which are generated in huge quantities in short periods of time. In this study, it was used the olive pomace as solid substrate to produce xylanases and cellulases by filamentous fungi. To improve the enzymes production ultrasounds pretreatment of olive pomace was evaluated. The results showed that the sonication led to a 3-fold increase of xylanase activity and a decrease of cellulase activity, indicating that ultrasounds treatment attacked the integrity of cell walls and increased the accessibility of hemicelluloses inducing the xylanases production by fungi.