Glutamic Acid Production from Rice Husk Using Corynebacterium glutamicum Isolated from Soil

Abstract

Many different biomass of agricultural origin holds remarkable potential for conversion into valuable products thereby presenting a double sharp edge importance of sustainable resource supply and environmental protection. Glutamic acid was produced from rice husk using a novel strain of Corynebacterium glutamicum and effects of parameters optimization such as substrate concentration, temperature, pH and inoculum size were determined during the fermentation process. The wild-type (Novel) strain was inoculated into 13 g/L of the pre-treated rice husk previously added to basal medium (pH 7.2), after which fermentation began. Fermentation broth from each flask was taken aseptically after 96 h and was assayed qualitatively and quantitatively. The acid-treated and alkali-treated rice husk gave the best glutamic acid yield of 10.40g/L and 9.08g/L respectively with the wild-type strain under predetermined optimum fermentation conditions. Out of the four parameters optimized, only substrate concentration was not found to be significant on the performance of the wild-type strain in glutamate production (p > 0.05). Acid-treated rice husk hydrolysate was found to be a better substrate for L-glutamate production by the wild-type strain of C. glutamicum under the optimum fermentation conditions determined.