2.
2 Selection of process
Selection of the process should include the following:
Fermentation
This process utilize microorganisms to convert solid or liquid substrates into various products
Commonly consumed fermented products include bread, cheese, pickled veuetables, beer, vs tne.
citric acid, glutamic acid etc...
Citric acid production by fermentation is the most economical and widely used way of obtaining this
product. More than 90 % of the citric acid produced in the world is obtained by fermentation
Advantages
(l) Operations are simple and stable,
(2) The plant is generally less complicated and needs less sophisticated control systenns,
(3) Technical skills required are less,
(4) Energy consumption is less and frequent power failures do not critically affect the functionil'2 of
the production plant.
Citric acid production by fermentation can be divided in three phases, which include: (l)
Preparation and inoculation of the raw material
Production of Citric Acidfrom Molasses 17
(2) vertncntauon
(3) Recovery of the product
Substrate
Molasses Sucrose
Synxps
Starch
'R llydrol
Alkanes
Oils and fats
Micro-organism
Aspergillus Niger is superior to other microorganisms for the commercial synthesis of citric acid
because of its better production yield. It is easy to handle, can ferment various cheap raw materials
and delivers high yields. As such, strains of this microorganism can be improved to create industrial
strains for use in commercial production, And mutagenesis and strain selection have been
In the history of citric acid fermentation, in the last hundred years, various strains of genera fungi,
Penicillium luterum,
Penicillium restrictum,
Paecilomyces divaricatum,
Mucor piriformis,
Trichoderma viride,
Sacharomycopsis lipolitica,
Althrobacter paraffineus,
Corynebacterium sp
However, only mutants of Aspergillus and yeasts genus Candida have almost exclusively been
utilized.
Apart from Aspergilus niger the following species of Aspergillus have been reported: Aspergillus
niger, Aspergillus wentii, Aspergillus awamori, Aspergillus foetidus, Aspergillus iZ•ntcis, Aspergillus
fonsecalus, Aspergillus fumaricus, Aspergillus luchensis, Aspergillus sait01, and Aspergillus usumii.
Fro
m the genus Candida the following have to be mentioned: Candida lipolyuca, Candida tropicalis,
Candida guilliermondii, Candida intermedia, Candida parapsllosis, Candida zeylanotdcs, Candida
fibriae, Candida subtropicalix, Candida oleophila. Mutants of Aspergillus ntgcr, Aspergillus wentii
and on paraffine substrats Candida lypolitica are used in industrial production.
Production of Citric Acidfrom Molasses 18
Techniques
Batch techmques
In fed-batch process
By continuous fermentation
Reactors
Various kinds of bioreactors as
Stirred tank reactors
Airlift reactors
External loop reactors
Magnetic drum contactors
Reciprocated jet reactors,
Bio disc reactor
Deep jet reactors
Hollow fibre
Fix bed reactor