PRODUCTION OF CELLULASE ENZYMES, REDUCING SUGARS, AND ORGANIC ACIDS FROM COFFEE PULPS WASTE BY ASPERGILLUS NIGER AND TRICHODERMA REESEI

• Main Author: Amalia, Fitria
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/69992
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The increase in coffee production is not followed by a good post-harvest practices, as coffee pulps waste is usually thrown to the environment, despite its potential as an ideal substrate for microbial processes because it contains high lignocellulose. Filamentous fungi such as Trichoderma reesei and Aspergillus niger are known to be appropriate microbiological agents for the degradation of lignocellulose into value-added products such as cellulase enzymes, reducing sugars and organic acids. Thus, this study aims to determine the presence of cellulase enzymes produced by single inoculum and combination of T.reesei and A.niger through fermentation by measuring the highest enzyme activity, determining the presence of reducing sugars from enzymatic hydrolysis, and organic acids produced by A.niger through fermentation. This research was initiated by establishing the sporulation and viability of T.reesei and A.niger followed by production of fungal inoculum. Then cellulase enzymes were produced by A.niger (107 spores/mL) and T.reesei (105 spores/mL) at 1% (coffee pulp sample/production solution). The resulting enzymes was used to hydrolyze delignified coffee pulp sample to produce reducing sugar, whereas the resulting reducing sugar was then inoculated with A.niger (107 spores/mL) 1% (v/v) to produce organic acids. The results showed production of enzyme by A.niger at the highest activity was 1.97 U/mL at the 96th hour, followed by A.niger: T.reesei with an activity of 1.89 U/mL at the same hour, whereas enzyme production by T.reesei had the highest activity of 0.56 U/mL at 72 hours. The highest reducing sugar production was obtained by using cellulase enzymes that was separately obtained from A.niger and T.reesei, with the yield of 3045.8 ppm at 36 hours. While the use of cellulase enzymes produced by co-culture of A.niger and T.reesei, resulted 2499.1 ppm sugar at 48th hour. However, the experiment of organic acid production was not successful due to the lack of adequate substrate in the Aspergillus niger growth medium. This research concluded that processing of coffee pulp using A.niger and T.reesei can be an alternative to transform coffee pulp waste into value-added products such as cellulase enzymes and reducing sugars. Further research is necessary for subsequent production of organic acids from sugars resulted from the hydrolysis of coffee pulps.