Cellulase and xylanase production from rice straw using M.thermophila SH1 was assessed. The waste was dried, grinded to mesh size of 2.0mm and microwave pretreated. The powdered waste was than used as a substrate. Fermentation was carried out in flasks containing pretreated and untreated rice straw, vogel;s medium, cultured at 500C initially for 8 days to verify cellulase production and for 5 days for xylanase production. The results showed that M.thermophila SH1 produced the highest amount of cellulase i.e. 43.07U/gds and xylanase of 281.07U/gds using pretreated rice straw under SSF. An increased in enzyme activity was observed in solid state fermentation over submerged fermentation.
