I am currently completing a design project, part of which requires cellulase to produce glucose for fermentation. 37 tons/hr of cellulose is the input for the process. We have found that 10 FPU/g cellulase is feasible for the process. How do I go about working out exactly how much cellulase we need? I don’t particularly understand FPU.
Yeah, one of those weird units: FPU stands for filter paper unit i.e. the amount of cellulase which frees 1 micromol of reducing end groups per minute from a filter paper suspension. This assumes filter paper is pure cellulose and varies depending on the cellulose fibrils' size and cristallinity. So I guess not very useful for you even if you have more data on the purity, fibrils size etc of your cellulose. A small experiment might be the best bet.
You can increase the FPU of cellulase to 12, 15, or 20 FPU/g. By which you will know the correct amount of cellulose.
If you want to FPU calculation you could follow this link:
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/gen/fy08/42628.pdf
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