4. Conclusions
The pretreatment with sodium carbonate is an efficient method
to improve enzymatic hydrolysis and ethanol production from rice
straw. Pretreatment with 0.5 M Na2CO3 at 100 ◦C and 1:20 g/g solid
loading for 3 h can result in complete conversion of glucan of rice
straw by enzymatic hydrolysis. Compare to S. cerevisiae, M. hiemalis
is able to produce ethanol with a higher overall yield employing SSF
process. Thus, this fungus can be a suitable alternative instead of S.
cerevisiae for ethanol production from lignocellulosic wastes.