Microbial production of propionic acid and vitamin B12 using molasses or sugar

Abstract

With a cell concentration of 125 g dry biomass l-1 and a dilution rate of 0.1 h-1, Propionibacterium acidipropionici produces 30 g propionic acid l-1 from sugar with a productivity of 3 g l-1 h-1. The yield of propionic acid is approx. 0.36-0.45 g propionic acid g-1 sucrose and is independent of the dilution rate and cell concentration. Acetic acid is an unwanted by-product in the production of propionic acid. The concentration of acetic acid only increases slightly when the cell concentration is increased. A two-stage fermentation process was developed for the conversion of sugar or molasses of various types to propionic acid and vitamin B12. By fermentation of blackstrap molasses (from sugar beet and sugar cane) in the first fermentation stage 17.7 g propionic acid l-1 with a yield of 0.5 g propionic acid g-1 carbohydrate was produced with a dilution rate of 0.25 h-1. In the second stage 49 mg vitamin B12 1-1 was produced at a dilution rate of 0.03 h-1.

Propionibacterium spp.—source of propionic acid, vitamin B12, and other metabolites important for the industry

“…Bacteria from P. freudenreichii , P. jensenii , P. thoenii , and P. acidipropionici species seem to be the most appropriate for the biotechnological production of propionic acid. Due to their wide variety of enzymatic systems, they can utilize carbon from various sources, pure and from waste products (Boyaval and Corre 1987 ; Carrondo et al 1988 ; Hsu and Yang 1991 ; Lewis and Yang 1992 ; Quesada-Chanto et al 1994 ; Barbirato et al 1997 ; Ramsay et al 1998 ; Himmi et al 2000 ; Huang et al 2002 ; Yazdani and Gonzales 2007 ; Zhu et al 2010 ; Feng et al 2011 ; Zhu et al 2012 ; Piwowarek et al 2016 ).…”

Biochemical Features of Beneficial Microbes: Foundations for Therapeutic Microbiology

“…These studies demonstrate that select folate producing microbes can be utilized to improve folate status and modulate the immune system in animal models. amino acids and fatty acids (244) and is primarily produced by anaerobic bacteria (245)(246)(247). Few bacteria are capable of producing vitamin B12 (248,249).…”

Biochemical Features of Beneficial Microbes: Foundations for Therapeutic Microbiology

“…B12 is required for the metabolism of nucleic acids, amino acids and fatty acids (244) and is primarily produced by anaerobic bacteria (245–247). Few bacteria are capable of producing vitamin B12 (248, 249).…”