56 Tatransk Matliare, Slovak Republic, May 26 30, 2003

A kinetics model for gluconic acid production by

Aspergillus niger

H. Znad, M. Blaej, V. Ble, J. Marko **

Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, Slovak University of Technology,

Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Radlinskho 9, 81237 Bratislava, Slovakia.
markos@cvt.stuba.sk

Key words: gluconic acid, Aspergillus niger, fermentation kinetics, Contois model

The fermentation kinetics of gluconic acid by Aspergillus niger was studied in a batch

system.The dependence of the specific growth rate on carbon and oxygen substrates was

assumed to follow the Monod kinetic model, which considers substrate limitation at low

concentration, and the Contois model which assume the biomass inhibition. The results

showed that the Contois type model was more suitable than that based on the Monod equation

for predicting the fermentation process of gluconic acid production by A. niger.

The Luedeking Piret equation was proposed for gluconic acid production and the

Luedeking Piret like equation for glucose consumption and dissolved oxygen. The

parameters of the Luedeking Piret model evaluated indicate that the production of gluconic

acid was mostly growth - associated.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Slovak Grant Agency for Science
VEGA (Grant No. 1/0066/03)

*
corresponding author