MODELLING OF L-GLUTAMIC ACID FERMENTATION

Abstract

Glutamic acid, a very important amino acid, is industrially produced by fermentation in batch mode of operation. Glutamic acid is used in pharmaceuticals and food as flavor enhancer. The world production is estimated about 60,000 tones per year. The most widely used bacterial groups for glutamic acid fermentation are gram- positive, coryneform bacteria as Corynebacteria and Brevibacterium. Molasses is useful as a raw material for L-glutamic acid fermentation as industrial production. Molasses contains biotin, which is sufficient for cell growth, makes the cell membranes impermeable of glutamic acid and result in poor accumulation of Glutamic acid. The critical biotin content of cells for Glutamic acid fermentation is 0.51A gig-dry cells. A fermentation process is a non linear and time—dependent process, thus the kinetic models describing the process should also be nonlinear and time dependent. The objective of present study is an attempt to form of an empirical nonlinear and time -dependent kinetic models for cell growth, substrate consumption, and product formation for the glutamic acid fermentation. Based on the model equations, methods have been developed for determination of kinetic parameter. Solutions of models have been carried out by numerical method and develop the computer programme in C++ language. The models results are compared with the reported data. The simulated effects of initial substrate concentration, initial biomass concentration, and product formation on the fermentation time of glutamic acid have been presented.