Kinetic modeling and quasi-economic analysis of fermentative glycolipopeptide biosurfactant production in a medium co-optimized by statistical and neural network approaches

Abstract

This study presents the kinetics of production of a glycolipopeptide biosurfactant in a medium previously co-optimized by response surface and neural network methods to gain some insight into its volumetric and specific productivities for possible scale-up towards industrial production. Significant kinetic parameters including maximum specific growth rate, µmax, specific substrate consumption rate, qs and specific biosurfactant yield, Yp/x were determined from logistic model parameters after comparison with other kinetic models. Results showed that bio-catalytic rates of lipase and urease reached exponential values within the first 12 h of fermentation leading to high specific rates of substrate consumption and bacterial growth. Volumetric biosurfactant production reached significantly high levels during prolonged stationary growth and specific urease activity. This suggests that glycolipopeptide biosynthesis may proceed through stationary phase transpeptidation of the glycolipid base. A high cross-correlation coefficient of 0.950 confirmed that substrate consumption and glycolipopeptide production occurred contemporaneously during the 66-h fermentation. The maximum biosurfactant concentration of 132.52 g/L, µmax of 0.292 h^-1, qp of 1.674 g/gDCW/h, rp of 2.008 g/(Lh) and Yp/x of 4.413 g/g predicted by the selected logistic model and a unit cost of €0.57/g glycolipopeptide in the optimized medium may lead to technical and economic benefits.

Keywords:

• Environmental biotechnology
• fermentation
• food processing
• scale-up

Acknowledgments

Dr. Joseph Ebigwai of Research Laboratory, Calabar, Nigeria is acknowledged for making his laboratory available for use at a very subsidized rate.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to Mr. Obi Oyeka of Bez Pharmaceuticals and Stores, Calabar, Nigeria for providing additional financial support for this research. This research was supported by Cross River State Government [Grant no.: CRS/SB/P/149/30] through the Scholarship Unit of their Ministry of Education.