Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
Amina Ahmed El-Imam1,2 and Du Chenyu2
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
Itaconic acid (IA) is a unique di-carboxylic acid widely used as a platform chemical to produce several value-added industrial
products. It is currently produced industrially by the fermentation of glucose-based sugar solutions using Aspergillus terreus
which compete with potential food applications and this in turn limits its industrial applications. This work replaces commercial
glucose with glucose from a relatively underutilised feedstock, sorghum bran the residue of the starch extraction process, for
the production of IA to decrease its production cost. Compositional analyses of brans from the white and red sorghum varieties
did not reveal significant differences in most parameters. The starch content was high in both brans, with white bran having
52.96% and Red bran having 67.26% starch content. They also contained fairly considerable amounts of minerals (1.4% and
1.7% respectively) and protein (19.2% and 21.4% respectively). The brans were saccharified enzymatically and using various
chemicals and the hydrolysates obtained from the most efficient conditions were tested for their ability to support A. terreus
growth using a phenotypic microarray process. The hydrolysates were then utilised in shake flask fermentations to produce
IA. No inhibitory effect on A. terreus growth in the dilute acid hydrolysates while production was limited relative to glucose
controls. The effects of various factors including phosphates, sulphates, sorghum tannins and buffer type as potential inhibitors
of IA production were investigated. A yield of around 10 g/L IA was produced from the enzymatic hydrolysate.
Amina Ahmed El-Imam is currently a PhD student in Life Sciences in the University of Nottingham, UK with interests in the application of biotechnology in the
production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals. She obtained her BSc and MSc in Microbiology and Industrial Microbiology respectively from the Ahmadu Bello
University Zaria, in Nigeria. She is currently looking at the fermentative production of itaconic acid, a high-value albeit less-investigated monomeric organic acid
from sorghum bran, a food-processing waste.