Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Research Article

1,3-Propanediol Production by Clostridium Butyricum in Various Fed- Batch Feeding Strategies

¹Bioconversion Laboratory, Microbiology engineering and health Safety, Faculty of Science the Nature and Life, University of Mascara BP.763, Sidi Said, Mascara, 29000, Algeria

²Laboratory of Chemisty, Department of chemistry, Faculty of sciences, University of Oran Es- Sénia, BP 1524 El M’naouer, 31.100, Oran. Algeria

Corresponding Author:

Hariri Ahmed
Bioconversion Laboratory, Microbiology engineering and health Safety
Faculty of Science the Nature and Life, University of Mascara BP.763
Sidi Said, Mascara, 29000, Algeria
E-mail: haririahmed@yahoo.fr

Received date: March 15, 2012; Accepted date: March 29, 2012; Published date: March 31, 2012

Citation: Ahmed H, Naouel O, Djilali B (2012) 1,3-Propanediol Production by Clostridium Butyricum in Various Fed-Batch Feeding Strategies. J Biotechnol Biomaterial 2:134. doi:10.4172/2155-952X.1000134

Copyright: © 2012 Ahmed H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The aim of this study is to propose different fed-batch strategies during the fermentation of glycerol into 1,3-Propanediol, which show the influence of the initial concentration in glycerol and the feed flow on the behaviour of Clostridium butyricum . The kinetic study of the conversion of glycerol into 1,3-Propanediol by Clostridium butyricum , showed that according to the initial concentration of glycerol and feed flow, this strain displays two different metabolic behaviours. This strain directs its metabolism towards its traditional metabolic pathways (production of 1,3-Propanediol, butyric and acetic acid), when the culture was started with a high initial concentration of glycerol and was fed with a weak rate. The high initial concentration of glycerol causes a deceleration of growth rate, which led to an increase in the growth phase duration. Feeding by a weak flow allowed maintaining the cells in full growth phase by providing the necessary substrate for its growth and its maintenance and, at the same time, to avoid the glycerol accumulation in the medium. A high feed flow involved a glycerol accumulation in the culture medium, which obliged the bacterium to direct its metabolism towards the production of acetic acid in significant quantities. The growth phase always showed the same duration, yielding similar final concentrations in biomass and metabolites, an identical metabolic behaviour was observed when the culture begin with a low initial concentration of glycerol, and whatever the flow of substrate applied. This behaviour may be explained by a growth inhibition caused by the accumulation of 1,3-Propanediol in concentrations of 20-25 g/L.