ResumenParámetros tales como eficiencia biológica (EB), tasa de productividad (TP), tamaño de los cuerpos fructíferos, grasa, fibra, carbohidratos totales, valor de energía y proteínas totales, fueron determinados y analizados para hongos comestibles de la cepa importada Pleurotus pulmonarius RN2 y dos cepas nativas de Panamá P.djamor RN81 y RN82, cultivadas sobre paja de arroz (Oriza sativa L), rastrojo y tuza de maíz (Zea maíz L.). El objetivo fue establecer si existían diferencias significativas en estos parámetros, por efecto de la cepa, el tipo de sustrato o su interacción. Más del 50% de los hongos cosechados presentó un tamaño entre 5 y10 cm. Se destaca un alto contenido de proteína para el hongo P. djamor RN82 crecido sobre tuza de maíz (43.07%) y una alta eficiencia biológica para P. pulmonarius RN2 (75.65%). Se obtuvo diferencias significativas para la eficiencia biológica, proteínas, carbohidratos y fibra por efecto de la interacción cepa sustrato.Palabras clave: eficiencia biológica, proteína, pleurotus pulmonarius, paja de arroz, rastrojo de maíz Productivity and quality of the fruiting bodies of edible mushrooms Pleurotus pulmonarius RN2 and P. djamor RN81 and RN82 grown on different lignocellulosic substrates Abstract Parameters such as biological efficiency (BE), productivity rate (TP), size of fruiting bodies, fat, fiber, total carbohydrate, energy value and total protein, were determined and analyzed for edible mushrooms, Pleurotus pulmonarius RN2, a foreign strain and two native strains of Panama: P. djamor RN81 and RN82 , all grown on rice straw (Oryza sativa L.), corn stubble and husk (Zea maize L.). The objective was to establish if there were significant statistical differences in these parameters due to strain, type of substrate or their interaction. Over 50% of the harvested mushrooms showed sizes between 5 and 10 cm. Outstanding results were the high protein content for fungus P. djamor RN82 grown on corn husk (43.07%) and high biological efficiency for P. pulmonarius RN2 (75.65%). Significant differences were obtained for biological efficiency, proteins, carbohydrates and fiber due to the strain-substrate interaction.

Drimys winteri, a native hardwood from Chile, presents some interesting characteristics that make it suitable for the pulp and paper industry. In this work, the potential of D winteri for the conventional kraft and biokraft pulp production was evaluated. For biokraft pulping, wood chips were biotreated with the white-rot fungus Ganoderma australe. During the biotreatment, a selective pattern of biodelignification was observed and the wood chips biotreated for 15, 30 and 45 days were submitted to kraft cooking. At low cooking severity (H-factor below 1500 h −1 , 15% active alkali and 25% sulfidity), all biopulps presented lower kappa numbers than control pulps and approximately the same screened pulp yield. Biopulps were easily refined in a PFI mill, requiring less PFI revolutions to achieve the same fibrillation degree. The strength properties of the biopulps were similar to those of the control pulps.

BACKGROUND: Alkaline sulfite/anthraquinone (ASA) cooking of Pinus radiata and Pinus caribaea wood chips followed by disk refining was used as a pretreatment for the production of low lignified and high fibrillated pulps. The pulps produced with different delignification degrees and refined at different energy inputs (250, 750 and 1600 Wh) were saccharified with cellulases and fermented to ethanol with Saccharomyces cerevisiae using separated hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) or semi-simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSSF) processes.

The production of bioethanol from pretreated lignocellulosic materials requires the utilization of microorganisms adapted to ferment the materials in conditions were high consistency, temperatures and inhibitors concentrations were commonly found. The yeast immobilization in calcium alginate capsules has been reported to enhance the yeast protection and increase the efficiency in the fermentation process. In this work, it was investigated the use Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized in calcium alginate and its performance in simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of diluted-acid-pretreated Pinus radiata. Results showed that when immobilized yeast was used, the bioethanol yield from pretreated wood was higher than with free yeast cells during a SSF process. Maximum ethanol yield obtained from the acid pretreated and milled wood chips was 153 L/ton wood, while from the hydrolysate fraction it was 18 L/ton wood. The sum of ethanol produced from dilute acid pretreated P. radiata for both solid and liquid fractions was 171 L ethanol/ton wood from a maximum theoretical of 236 L/ ton pretretated wood (or 72% of conversion).

Lignocellulosic biomass (LB) has been recognized as potential raw for bioethanol production. To facility LB bioconversion a pretreatment is applied, followed by simultaneous or separated saccharification and fermentation (SSF or SHF, respectively) steps. Characterization of pretreated materials, needed to evaluate their ethanol yields, involves laborious and destructive methodologies. Therefore, saccharification is also time consuming and expensive step and some pretreated samples have not suitable characteristics to obtain high ethanol yields. Since bioethanol production aims to be a multivariable process respect to lignocellulosic resources, this work attempts to use NIR spectroscopy as alternative to wet chemical analysis to characterize samples from multiple pretreatments and lignocellulosic resources simultaneously and estimate their ethanol yield after a SSF process using multivariate calibration. Selection of suitable samples to obtain high ethanol yields using a classification method is also evaluated. Partial least squares (PLS) and discriminant partial least squares (PLS-DA) were used as calibration and classification techniques, respectively. Results showed ability of NIR spectroscopy to predict the chemical composition of samples and their ethanol yields, even if different lignocellulosic materials were used in the models, with low prediction errors and high correlation coefficients with reference methods (r>0,96) in PLS models and low misclassification rates (20-30%) in classification models. Use of these models could facility the fast selection of high number of samples with suitable characteristics to obtain high ethanol yields and as predictive tool of these ethanol yields after a SSF process under controlled conditions.