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Substrate-limited co-culture for efficient production of propionic acid from flour hydrolysate
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2013-05-01
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Institut
TORE-URI
Volume
97
Issue
13
Start Page
5771
End Page
5777
Citation
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 13 (97): 5771-5777 (2013)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
Publisher
Springer
Propionic acid is presently mainly produced by chemical synthesis. For many applications, especially in feed and food industries, a fermentative production of propionic acid from cheap and renewable resources is of large interest. In this work, we investigated the use of a co-culture to convert household flour to propionic acid. Batch and fed-batch fermentations of hydrolyzed flour and a process of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation were examined and compared. Fed-batch culture with substrate limitation was found to be the most efficient process, reaching a propionic acid concentration of 30 g/L and a productivity of 0.33 g/L*h. This is the highest productivity so far achieved with free cells on media containing flour hydrolysate or glucose as carbon source. Batch culture and culture with controlled saccharification and fermentation delivered significantly lower propionic acid production (17-20 g/L) due to inhibition by the intermediate product lactate. It is concluded that co-culture fermentation of flour hydrolysate can be considered as an appealing bioprocess for the production of propionic acid. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Subjects
Co-culture
Fed batch
Mixed culture
Simultaneous saccharifcation and fermentation
Substrate inhibition
DDC Class
570: Biowissenschaften, Biologie