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Continuous Succinic Acid Fermentation by Actinobacillus Succinogenes: Assessment of Growth and Succinic Acid Production Kinetics

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Abstract

Succinic acid is one of the most interesting platform chemicals that can be produced in a biorefinery approach. The paper reports the characterization of the growth kinetics of Actinobacillus succinogenes DSM 22257 using glucose as carbon source. Tests were carried out in a continuous bioreactor operated under controlled pH. Under steady-state conditions, the conversion process was characterized in terms of concentration of glucose, cells, acids, and pH. The effects of acid—succinic, acetic, and formic—concentration in the medium on fermentation performance were investigated. The fermentation was interpreted according to several models characterized by substrate and product inhibition. The selected kinetic model of biomass growth and of metabolite production described the microorganism growth rate under a broad interval of operating conditions. Under the investigated operating conditions, results pointed out that: no substrate inhibition was observed; acetic acid did not inhibit the cell growth and succinic acid production.

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Abbreviations

S max, P max :

Critical concentrations of substrate or products (g/L)

AA, FA, G, SA:

Concentration of acetic, formic and succinic acid, glucose (g/L)

μ :

Specific growth rate (h-1)

μ max :

Maximum specific growth rate (h-1)

D :

Dilution rate (h-1)

K S :

Substrate saturation constant (g/L)

K i :

Substrate inhibition coefficient (g/L)

K P :

Products inhibition coefficient (g/L)

n i :

Exponent of inhibitory products

Y ATP :

ATP yield (gDM/molATP)

\( {Y}_{\mathrm{ATP}}^{\mathrm{MAX}} \) :

Maximum ATP yield (gDM/molATP)

Y X/SA :

Mass ratio between biomass and succinic acid (gDM/g)

Y SA/ATP :

Ratio between succinic acid and ATP moles (g/molATP)

X :

Cell concentration (gDM/L)

δ 2 :

Mean square deviation

R 2 :

Correlation coefficient

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Funding

The study was supported by the Ministero dell’Istruzione, delll’Università e della Ricerca project “Development of green technologies for production of BIOchemicals and their use in preparation and industrial application of POLImeric materials from agricultural biomasses cultivated in a sustainable way in Campania Region – BIOPOLIS” PON03PE_00107_1/1.

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  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, dei Materiali e della Produzione Industriale – Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, P.le V. Tecchio 80, 80125, Naples, Italy

    Mariateresa Ferone, Francesca Raganati, Giuseppe Olivieri, Piero Salatino & Antonio Marzocchella

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  1. Mariateresa Ferone
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  2. Francesca Raganati
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  3. Giuseppe Olivieri
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Correspondence to Mariateresa Ferone.

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Ferone, M., Raganati, F., Olivieri, G. et al. Continuous Succinic Acid Fermentation by Actinobacillus Succinogenes: Assessment of Growth and Succinic Acid Production Kinetics. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 187, 782–799 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-018-2846-8

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