SACCHARIFICATION OF TOMATO POMACE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BIOMASS

Several cellulase titers were used to saccharify suspensions of tomato pomace in 300 ml shake-flasks. The sacharification of the substrate p roduced glucose at different initial rates from 1.8 g of reducing suga r kg(-1) per enzyme unit fat 10 g of tomato pomace kg(-1)) to 36.1 g o f reducing sugar kg(-1) per enzyme unit (at 160 g of tomato pomace kg( -1)). Maximum concentrations of reducing sugars were observed in the e xperiments with 160 g of tomato pomace kg(-1) producing hydrolysates c ontaining 49.7 g of reducing sugars kg(-1) The maximum yield was 31% ( w/w) corresponding to a 76% (w/w) cellulose conversion. The saccharifi cation of tomato pomace also yielded other monosaccharides with the fo llowing distribution: glucose, 76.6% (w/w), fructose, 11.2% (w/w); xyl ose, 7.5% (w/w) and cellobiose, 3.8% (w/w). Fungal cultures grown in t omato pomace syrups showed that the initial biomass of 2.02 g kg(-1) i ncreased exponentially after a 4 h lag phase to yield 9.02 g kg(-1) at the end of 48 h. The uptake of glucose occurred at 0.64 g/lh. At the end of the fermentation the fungi had consumed 93.4% of the total suga r, displaying a biomass yield of 0.53 g/g. The glucose was totally con sumed between 12 and 24 h fermentation and the fungal growth observed up to 48 h was due to xylose and fructose, which started to be used af ter 12 h. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.