Purpose Show how the most common conditioning treatments of lignocellulosic agricultural residues determine the performance of specific biological processes and after a review propose a final use for the resulting residues.
Methods Conditioning treatments such as drying and size reduction for prickly pear peels, or soaking and ultrasound for pineapple peels were applied before using these materials in a solid state-culture or an enzymatic saccharification, respectively. A detailed analysis about the fate of those solids obtained after solidstate culture on prickly pear peels or saccharification of pineapple peels was done to propose the integral use of these materials in the bioprocess performance.
Results In a solid-state culture using 1.84 mm particles of sun-dried prickly pear peels, Aspergillus niger produced eight-fold more xylanases and twice more laccases than those obtained on 1.09 mm wave-dried particles. Conversely, the highest enzymatic saccharification yields of pineapple peels were obtained with unconditioned peels, which means an advantage for the economy and operation of the process. The resulting residual composites can have several fates. Conclusion Agricultural residues are a potential material for obtaining biotechnological products, and some of the conditioning treatments are not necessary to use them in a bioprocess. These residues can have an integral use along the bioprocess development.