Sugar production from raw seaweed using the enzyme method

For effective saccharification from raw seaweed using the enzyme method, various environmental factors affecting the apparent viscosity were investigated. When 0.75% of ascorbic acid was used, the apparent viscosity decreased from 500 to 125 cP after 1 h of sterilization, and did not decrease after 2 h of sterilization. In the case of the raw seaweed without the addition of ascorbic acid, it did not decrease significantly. However, when HCl was used, it decreased from 480 to 389 cP after 1 h of sterilization, after which it did not decrease. The apparent viscosity of raw seaweed was strongly affected by the ascorbic acid concentration. For instance, when 1.0% ascorbic acid was used, the apparent viscosity was 92 cP. On the other hand, no further decrease in apparent viscosity occurred upon increasing the concentration above 1.5%. A scale up of the saccharification of raw seaweed using the new enzyme method was carried out. When the new enzyme method was used for the saccharification, 8.8 g/l of sugar was obtained after 6 h of reaction, which was about four times higher than that obtained without the addition of the ascorbic acid and liquozyme. In particular, the sugar production rate was 1.6 g/l/h, which was about 33 times higher than that of the saccharification using Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. A fed-batch experiment for the saccharification was also carried out, where the sugar concentration reached 27.2 g/l after 16 h of reaction.