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BackgroundCassava starch is considered as a potential source for the commercial production of bioethanol because of its availability and low market price. It can be used as a basic source to support large-scale biological production of bioethanol using microbial amylases. With the progression and advancement in enzymology, starch liquefying and saccharifying enzymes are preferred for the conversion of complex starch polymer into various valuable metabolites. These hydrolytic enzymes can selectively cleave the internal linkages of starch molecule to produce free glucose which can be utilized to produce bioethanol by microbial fermentation.ResultsIn the present study, several filamentous fungi were screened for production of amylases and among them Aspergillus fumigatus KIBGE-IB33 was selected based on maximum enzyme yield. Maximum α-amylase, amyloglucosidase and glucose formation was achieved after 03 days of fermentation using cassava starch. After salt precipitation, fold purification of α-amylase and amyloglucosidase increased up to 4.1 and 4.2 times with specific activity of 9.2 kUmg-1 and 393 kUmg-1, respectively. Concentrated amylolytic enzyme mixture was incorporated in cassava starch slurry to give maximum glucose formation (40.0 gL-1), which was further fermented using Saccharomyces cerevisiae into bioethanol with 84.0% yield. The distillate originated after recovery of bioethanol gave 53.0% yield.ConclusionAn improved and effective dual enzymatic starch degradation method is designed for the production of bioethanol using cassava starch. The technique developed is more profitable due to its fast liquefaction and saccharification approach that was employed for the formation of glucose and ultimately resulted in higher yields of alcohol production.

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Soil contamination with heavy metal content is a growing concern throughout the world as a result of industrial, mining, agricultural and domestic activities. Fungi are the most common and efficient group of heavy metal resistant microbe family which have potential for metal bioleaching. The use of filamentous fungi in bioleaching of heavy metals from contaminated soil has been developed recently. The current study intends to isolate a strain with the ability to degrade the pH value of the liquid medium. Identification results based on morphological and molecular biological analysis gave a 98% match to Aspergillus flavus. Batch experiments were conducted to select the optimal conditions for bioleaching process which indicated that 130 mg/ L sucrose, neutral pH and temperature of 30°C were more suitable during 15-day bioleaching experiments using A. flavus. In one-step bioleaching, the bioleaching efficiencies were 18.16% for Pb, 39.77% for Cd and 58.22% for Zn+2, while two-step bioleaching showed efficiencies of 16.91% for Pb, 49.66% for Cd and 65.73% for Zn+2. Overall, this study indicates that bioleaching of heavy metals in contaminated soil using A. flavus has the potential for contaminated soil remediation.