Enzymatic hydrolysis of alkali-pretreated rice straw by Trichoderma reesei ZM4-F3

To minimize the cost of cellulase production, both pretreatment of the rice straw and on-site enzyme production were realized. Rice straw was first pretreated by 2% NaOH, which could increase cellulose by 54.83%, and decreased hemicellulose by 61.07% and lignin by 36.24%, respectively. Detected by SEM, significant morphological changes were observed in the tissue. Through orthogonal experiments, temperature 35 °C, initial pH value 4.5 and the rotation speed of shaking bed 180 rpm were determined to be the optimal conditions for hydrolysis of rice straw by Trichoderma reesei ZM4-F3. After hydrolysis for 96 h, the production of FPA and reducing sugars could achieve 2.231 g l −1 and 12.92 U ml −1, respectively. Moreover, T. reesei ZM4-F3 can decompose 68.21% of pretreated rice straw after 120 h of hydrolysis. By GC analysis, it showed that glucose is the main component of the enzymatic hydrolysates, which made GC seem to be more effective than the DNS method for analysis of the enzymatic hydrolysates as it can detect the concentration of each kind of monosaccharide more accurately.