earticle

영어

Since butyric acid has wide applications to chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries, there has been a great interest in its fermentative production. In particular, butyric acid more recently has been disclosed to be converted to butanol, known as one of the most promising liquid biofuels, via a catalytic reaction with hydrogen. In this study, the kinetics of cell growth, butyric
acid formation, and substrate consumption in the batch fermentation of Clostridium tyrobutyricum were investigated. In order to describe cell growth, butyric acid production, and glucose consumption, modified Monod model by adding terms of inhibitions of substrate and product,
Luedeking-Piret model, and carbon mass balance were employed, respectively. The parameters used in the models were estimated by m inimizing mean-squared errors between the predictions of the models and the experimental data obtained from a series of batch fermentations. The predictions of the models have showed in good agreements with the
fermentation results. Especially, the model-based fed-batch fermentation remarkably increased butyric acid production, and also enhanced the growth of C. tyrobutyricum. The models developed in this study could be used for the development of fermentative chemicals and fuels production processes. This work was supported by Energy Technology Innovation (ETI) Program of the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE).