Biological Production of Acrylic Acid from Cheese Whey by Resting Cells of Clostridium propionicum

Abstract

Biological production of acrylic acid from cheese whey has been demonstrated. Lactose in sweet whey fortified with yeast extract was first converted to a stoichiometric mixture of propionic and acetic acids in 70 h by a coculture of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Pro‐pionibacterium shermanii. Further conversion of propionate to acrylate was accomplished by resting cells of Clostridium propionicum in systems in which methylene blue acted as an electron acceptor. A maximum acrylate yield of 0.133 mmol/g of wet cell was achieved for periods of 6 h, after which resting cell activity declined substantially. Bio‐conversion of propionate to acrylate could also be carried out by cells immobilized in calcium alginate beads with no decrease in cell productivity or initial reaction rate.

A Novel Extractive Fermentation Process for Propionic Acid Production from Whey Lactose

“…To date, commercial production of propionic acid is almost entirely by petrochemical routes (Playne, 1985). However, there has been increasing interest in producing propionic acid from whey lactose and other cheap biomass using propionibacteria (Blanc & Goma, 1987a;Bodie et al, 1987;Border et al, 1987;Boyaval and Corre, 1987;Cavin et al, 1985;Clausen and Gaddy, 1981;Datta, 1981;Emde and Schink, 1990;Hendricks et al, 1985;Hsu and Yang, 1991;Lewis, 1991;O'Brien et al, 1990).…”

Propionic acid fermentation by Propionibacterium acidipropionici: effect of growth substrate

“…An extractive fermentation process was developed to reduce propionic acid inhibition (Blanc and Goma 1987b;Neronova et al 1967) and thus, to enhance reactor productivity (Lewis and Yang 1992). Co-cultures of the homolactic bacteria Lactobacillus and Propionibacterium shermanii were found to have a shorter fermentation time and higher propionate yields than the pro-438 pionibacterium grown alone (Liu and Moon 1982;O'Brien et al 1990). These effects can be attributed to preference of lactate over glucose or lactose by P. shermanii (Lee et al 1974) and stimulatory effects from products liberated during co-cultured fermentation.…”

Transformation of Biomass into Commodity Chemicals Using Enzymes or Cells

“…Resting cells of C. propionicum converted up to 18.5% of propionate into acrylate when methylene blue was used as an electron acceptor. 263 The acrylate concentration reached up to 2.2 g/L. To obtain renewable propionate from sugars, these authors had fermented lactose into a mixture of propionate, acetate and lactate, using a coculture of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Propionibacterium shermanii.…”