Gutierrez-Sanchez G., Roussos Sevastianos, Augur Christopher
Source
Folia Microbiologica, 2013,
58 (3), p. 195-200 ISSN 0015-5632
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the initial caffeine concentration (1-8 g/L) on growth and caffeine consumption by Aspergillus tamarii as well as pellet morphology, in submerged fermentation. Caffeine was used as sole nitrogen source. At 1 g/L of initial caffeine concentration, caffeine degradation was not affected, resulting in a production of 8.7 g/L of biomass. The highest biomass production (12.4-14.8 g/L) was observed within a range of 2 to 4 g/L of initial caffeine concentration. At these initial caffeine concentrations, after 96 h of fermentation, 41-51 % of the initial caffeine was degraded. Using an initial caffeine concentration of 2-3 g/L, the highest specific growth rate was observed (mu = 0.069 1/h). Biomass production decreased at 8 g/L of initial caffeine concentration. A. tamarii formed mainly pellets at all concentrations tested. The size of the pellet decreased at a caffeine concentration of 8 g/L.
