The depletion of petroleum and other platform chemical resources are a global concern;
therefore alternative substrates must be identified to replace these current sources. Thus
allowing research in fungal biotechnology to prosper, as filamentous fungi can utilize
second-generation feedstocks or agricultural waste to produce these petroleum derived
platform chemicals. This research focuses on the ability of filamentous fungi to use
different second-generation feedstocks such as wheat bran and sugar cane bagasse to
generate platform chemicals of interest, namely being itaconic acid (IA) and other
organic acids of interest, such as citric acid. This study focused on the metabolite
producing capabilities of Aspergillus terreus, initially in a shake flask fermentation
environment and then in an Airlift Bioreactor environment utilizing hydrolyzed wheat
bran and sugar cane bagasse as a substrate source to produce metabolites of interest. The
initial shake flask fermentation experiment involved inoculation and incubating A.
terreus in hydrolyzed wheat bran with additional minerals at 30°C for 5 days at a pH
range of between 3-4. The result yielded itaconic acid and citric acid concentrations of
1.01g/l and 6.23g/l at their peaks, respectively. The airlift bioreactor was run for 16 days
with a constant pH range between 3-4, at a temperature of 30°C with a dissolved oxygen
level of 20g/l. The result of the study yielded a high itaconic acid and citric acid
concentration peaking at 59.4 g/l and 59.2 g/l, respectively.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/12056 |
| Date | 05 October 2012 |
| Creators | Hu, Ziyi |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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