“…Mainly, GO is commercially available as a by-product of the gluconic acid fermentation process with selected strains of Aspergillus niger (Crueger and Crueger, 1990). Fungal GOs have been widely studied during the past two decades (Crueger and Crueger, 1990) and there is much literature on the enzyme and cell immobiliT~tion for the production of gluconic acid (Karube et al, 1977;Doppner and Hartmeier, 1984); on the contrary, only one paper has been found concerning the production of GO from immobilized growing fungal cells (Fiedurek and Ilczuk, 1991). This paper deals with the production of a new and specific GO by a selected strain of Penicillium variabile (Petruccioli et al, 1993;Garzillo et aL, 1994) immobilized in different carriers (Ca-alginate, agar, polyurethane sponge, pearlite and active carbon) and used in repeated-batch processes.…”