Conclusion
The optimized condition for the performance of the fungal crude enzyme on carboxymethyl cellulase activities from T. soudanense heat pre-treated rice husk showed maximum activity at 30 °C, pH 5, and duration of 96 h (4 days), while T. soudanense showed maximum activities at 50 °C and 80 °C, respectively, also at pH of 5 and duration of 120 h (5 days). Rice husk aseptically cooled after heating followed by treatment with T. mentagrophyte gave 44.50 ± 10.90 (% ± SEM) cellulose as the highest yield; highest total lignin value of 28.90 ± 1.80 was obtained from pre-heated rice husk treated with co-culture of T. soudanense and T. mentagrophyte; hemicelluloses contents of 30.50 ± 2.12 were obtained from pre-heated rice husk treated with T. soudanense (TS); rice husk heated and cooled followed by treatment with T. mentagrophyte (TM) gave the highest carbohydrate, reducing and non-reducing sugar values of 16.79 ± 9.14, 2.66 ± 0.45, and 14.13 ± 8.69 (% ± SEM) as well as highest bioethanol yield of 11.11 ± 0.21 (% ± standard deviation) when fermented using palm wine yeast. There were slight differences between the values of the fungal treatments and controls in all the parameters tested except for the protein content.