Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
E
NZYMATIC AND
M
ICROBIAL
C
ONVERSION OF
S
UGAR
B
EET
S
HREDS INTO
V
ALUABLE
P
RODUCTS
Mirjana Antov
1,
*
, Darjana Ivetić
1
and Zorica Knežević Jugović
2
1
Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
2
Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Serbia
A
BSTRACT
Sugar beet shreds as waste that remains after sugar extraction represent material rich
in different carbohydrate polymers. They contain cellulose (20 - 30%), hemicellulose (18
- 34%) and pectin (23 - 32%) while protein and lignin content is relatively low, 7 - 11%
and 1 - 4%, respectively. Conventional use of sugar beet shreds as by-product of sugar
industry is as an ingredient of ruminants feed formulations or as soil fertilizer. It is known
that digestibility and even nutritional value of sugar beet shreds as well as preservability
of fresh ones can be improved by microbial conversion i.e., by ensiling them by bacterial
fermentation. However, microbial conversion of sugar beet shreds can be directed toward
production of valuable products such as enzymes. Namely, due to their high content of
carbohydrate polymers sugar beet shreds can be excellent substrate for production of
cellulases, hemicellulase and pectinases by fungi. In addition, by use of enzymes
carbohydrates from sugar beet shreds can be converted into simple sugars and used for
production of lignocellulosic bioethanol as well as into oligosaccharides with prebiotic
characteristics. Low lignin content makes them favorable substrate for enzymatic
conversion allowing more simple pretreatment procedures. This chapter aims to review
processes of microbial and enzymatic conversions of sugar beet shreds into valuable
products of biotechnology.
