Immobilization of Actinobacillus succinigenes in Alginate Beads for Succinic Acid Production

Nowadays the succinic acid (SA) - a C-4 dicarboxylic acid - is considered as one of the most promising platform chemicals produced from renewable resources via fermentation. Enhancement of the SA fermentation efficiency and productivity may take advantages from immobilized cultures.. This work reports the immobilization of Actinobacillus succinogenes cells in calcium alginate beads. Glucose was used as carbon source for the fermentation. A parallel fermentation test with free cells was carried out to assess the advantages of the immobilization technology. The immobilization in alginate beads was proved to be an effective technique for SA production by A. succinogenes. The fermentation performances of the immobilized cells were higher than those of the free cells. In particular, at initial glucose concentrations of 40 g/L the maximum productivity in immobilized cells fermentation (0.77 g/Lh) is more than twice that measured for free cells (0.32 g/Lh