Microbial Biotechnology
 Biotechnology Industry
Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol. 13 No. 4, Issue of July 15, 2010
© 2010 by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso -- Chile Received August 26, 2009 / Accepted January 8, 2010
DOI: 10.2225/vol13-issue4-fulltext-1
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Valorization of raw glycerol for citric acid production by Yarrowia lipolytica yeast

Anita Rywińska*
Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology
Faculty of Food Science
Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences
50-375 Wroclaw, ul. C.K. Norwida 25/27, Poland
E-mail: Anita.Rywinska@up.wroc.pl

Waldemar Rymowicz
Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology
Faculty of Food Science
Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences
50-375 Wroclaw, ul. C.K. Norwida 25/27, Poland 

Marta Marcinkiewicz
Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology
Faculty of Food Science
Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences
50-375 Wroclaw, ul. C.K. Norwida 25/27, Poland

*Corresponding author

Financial support: This work was financed by ministry of Sciences and Higher Education of Poland under Project No. 2P06T 044 30.

Keywords: citric acid, fed-batch culture, Yarrowia lipolytica, raw glycerol.

Abbreviations:

CA: citric acid
ER: erythritol
Gly: glycerol
HPLC: high pressure liquid chromatography
ICA: isocitric acid
MAN: mannitol
qCA: specific rate of citric acid production, g g-1 h-1
QCA: volumetric citric acid productivity, g L-1 h-1
X: biomass
YCA: yield of citric acid, g acid g-1 glucose

Abstract   Full Text

In the present report, citric acid production from raw glycerol in two fed-batch systems by acetate negative-mutants of Yarrowia lipolytica: Wratislavia 1.31 and Wratislavia AWG7 was compared. In the system, in which the total glycerol concentration was 200 g∙L-1, the substrate was added by pulsed additions, and in the other, in which the total glycerol concentration was 300 g∙L-1, the substrate was added at a constant feeding rate of 1.4 g∙h-1. Despite high citric acid concentrations (155.2 and 157.5 g∙L-1 with Y. lipolytica Wratislavia 1.31 and Y. lipolytica Wratislavia AWG7, respectively) obtained from 300 g∙L-1 of glycerol, the yield of citric acid was similar, i.e. about 0.6 g∙g-1. The volumetric citric acid productivity was markedly higher (1.05 and 0.94 g∙L-1h-1 with Y. lipolytica Wratislavia 1.31 and Y. lipolytica Wratislavia AWG7 strains, respectively) in the cultures containing 200 g∙L-1 of carbon source.

Supported by UNESCO / MIRCEN network