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Handling the inhibitory role of product accumulation during sophorolipid fermentation in a bubble column reactor with an in situ foam recovery

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Abstract

Sophorolipid (SL) production by Candida catenulata from sunflower fatty acids was studied in a bubble column reactor (BCR). The specific oxygen uptake rate was 0.021 mg gcell−1 min−1 which indicates the importance of aeration in SL biosynthesis. The measurement of oxygen transfer rate (OTR) in the BCR showed a satisfactory OTR value of about 0.093 min−1 in the system. However, further SL production was stopped after 30 h in the BCR mainly due to the product accumulation in the culture and its inhibitory effects on cell growth and SL synthesis. Since an extensive foam was generated in the BCR under the absence of an antifoam agent, the development of an in situ foam recovery system provided the integration of production and separation of SL to handle the problem. The application of the foam recovery system enhanced biomass and titer SL concentration by 38.5 and 28.2% in comparison with the conventional BCR, respectively. Further studies in the system were performed by monitoring the size of bubbles and their effects on the biomass and SL enrichment in the foam stream at different aeration rates where the SL enrichment varied from 900 to 100% at 12 and 50 h of the fermentation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kermanshah’s Mahidasht Agricultural Industrial Complex (Nazgol Co., Iran) for giving them sunflower soap stock.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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  1. Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

    Fariba Amiri & Alireza Habibi

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  1. Fariba Amiri
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  2. Alireza Habibi
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Contributions

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. FA gathered the initial data, managed the literature searches, and produced the initial manuscript. AH anchored the field study, interpreted the data, and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alireza Habibi.

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Amiri, F., Habibi, A. Handling the inhibitory role of product accumulation during sophorolipid fermentation in a bubble column reactor with an in situ foam recovery. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 47, 381–392 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-024-02970-0

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