PRODUÇÃO DE ÁCIDO PROPIÔNICO POR Propionibacterium acidipropionici A PARTIR DA FERMENTAÇÃO DE EFLUENTES AGROINDUSTRIAIS

Abstract

Propionic acid is an organic acid used as a preservative in foods and seeds, and as an ingredient in thermoplastics, medicaments, perfumes, fragrances and solvents. Its production takes place by conventional chemical synthesis that uses petroleum as raw material. Finding alternatives and more sustainable ways than the use of petroleum products has been shown an interesting option to the production of organic acids. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the propionic acid production from agroindustrial effluents by fermentation, using a culture of Propionibacterium acidipropionici CCT 4843. Whey, corn steep liquor and animal feed effluent were used as substrate. The substrates composition was based on an experimental design mixture, resulting in 10 samples. The substrates were fermented in batch borosilicate glasses at a temperature of 35°C, initial pH 6.5 and 20 mL.L-1 suspension of inoculum. After choose the substrate, a 33-1 factorial design was carried out, to see how the variable hydraulic retention time, inoculum concentration and pH affected the production of propionic acid. The propionic and other organic acids were detected using a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The corn steep liquor was chosen as the best a substrate for the factorial design, because it showed the highest propionic acid yield, 0.79 g. g substrate-1,propionic acid productivity of 5.20 mg.L-1.h-1 and production of 0.40 gL-1. It was found that hydraulic retention time and initial pH influenced on the yield and propionic acid productivity, but the initial inoculum concentration did not influence the answers. The highest propionic acid yield of 0.6275 g.g- 1, was obtained with 96 hours of hydraulic retention time, inoculum of initial concentration of 20 mL.L-1 and initial pH of 6.0.The best propionic acid productivity was obtained for hydraulic retention time of 60h, initial inoculum concentration of 30 mL.L-1 and initial pH of 6.5. It was concluded that propionic acid production is possible from agroindustrial waste, but the process conditions should be optimized to make it economically viable.