Gluconic Acid Production,Concrete Industries,Aspergillus Spp,Penicillium, Mucor, Fusarium, Pullutaria

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Use Of Microbes in Industry and Agriculture Part 1
Use Of Microbes in Industry and Agriculture
Microorganism Isolation Methods
Microorganism Sterilization and Disinfection Methods
Microorganism Culture Methods
Acetone OR Butanol Production
Gluconic Acid Production
Production of Other Organic Compounds
List of Organic Compounds Produced by Microbial Fermentation
Production of Alpha Amylases
Production of Alkaline Proteases
Production of Neutral Proteases
Production of Acid Proteases
Production of Lipases
Bacteria and Fungi Producing Alpha Amylase

Gluconic Acid Production - Gluconic acid and its salts are widely used in pharmaceutical food, feed, detergent, textile, leather, photographic and concrete industries. During glucose oxidation, gluconic acid is produced by most Aspergillus spp and several species of other fungal genera like Penicillium, Mucor, Fusarium, Pullutaria, etc.

In the industry, Aspergillus Niger seems to be the most widely used micro organism, since it contains very active form of the enzyme glucose oxidase. Glucose is the precursor for the synthesis of gluconic acid as follows:

	glucose oxidase
β - D - glucose + 1/2 O₂	----------------->	gluconic acid

A typical fermentation medium for producing gluconic acid using Aspergillus sp. contains the following: glucose 150g/1, maize steep liquor 3.7g/l, KH₂PO₄ 0.2g/1, MgSO₄7H₂O 0.17g/1, urea 0.10g/l, (NH₄)₂HPO₄ O' 4g/l. For some strains of Aspergillus Niger, other nitrogen sources such as NaNO₃, NH₄N0₃ or (NH₄)₂SO₄ and peptone are also added in the medium. Maize syrup supplies the trace elements required for the fungus.

The fungus is incubated in such a medium which is kept well aerated at pH 5, 5 to 6, O. Optimum yield is obtained at 28- 3O"C. Often the accumulation of free gluconic acid in the medium inhibits further fungal growth, with a poor yield of the acid.

To avoid this, CaCO₃ or NaOH is also added in the medium, so that the gluconic acid secreted from the fungus is neutralized to Ca/Na gluconate.