G. BASKAR, S.BARATH KUMAR, R. ARUL LUCA SUNDER SINGH, C. MUTHUKUMARAN AND S. RENGANATHAN
Abstract
Hydrolysis of starch from agricultural wastes and other natural sources finds potential applications in commercial production of alcoholic beverage and biofuels. In this study the effect of temperature, pH and enzyme concentration, which affects the kinetics of immobilized (cross linked) fungal a - amylase catalyzed hydrolysis of cassava starch (mesh 85/120) into glucose syrup were studied and optimized. For immobilized fungal a -amylase the optimum value of temperature, pH and enzyme concentration were found to be 5°C, 3 and 1% respectively at maximum starch concentration of 3%. The kinetic rate constant (Km) was 3.24 mg/mL and maximum reaction rate (V.) was 0.29x103 mmol/ (mL.sec). The maximum glucose yield obtained at optimum conditions was 3.4 mg/mL at 2 hr. Activation energy (Ea) of cross-linked a -amylase for hydrolysis of cassava starch was 3.93 J/mol. It was evident that the mass transfer limitation in immobilization of a -amylase by cross-linking techniques was less and did not affected the rate of hydrolysis of Cassava starch into glucose.