Immobilization of cellulase onto electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibrous membranes and its application to the reducing sugar production from microalgae

This study demonstrates a method to prepare an immobilized cellulase by using an electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibrous membrane as the support. To obtain an immobilized cellulase with high hydrolytic activity, the immobilization conditions including activation time, enzyme concentration, immobilization time, and temperature were optimized. Under those conditions, the immobilized cellulase possessed a protein loading of 30 mg/g-support and a specific activity of 3.2 U/mg-protein. After immobilization, the enzymatic stability of cellulase against pH and thermal stresses was improved. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements also revealed that the cellulase was covalently bonded to the supports. The immobilized cellulase was then used to hydrolyze cell wall of microalgae for the production of reducing sugars. Analyses using response surface methodology (RSM) show that the hydrolysis yield was affected by the reaction temperature, pH, and substrate/cellulase mass ratio, and a hydrolysis yield of 60.86% could be obtained at 47.85 °C, pH 5.82, and a substrate/cellulase mass ratio of 40 g-substrate/g-cellulase. This result suggests that the proposed scheme for the cellulase immobilization has great potential for the application to the reducing sugar production.