Improving the production yield and productivity of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone from glycerol fermentation using Gluconobacter oxydans NL71 in a compressed oxygen supply-sealed and stirred tank reactor (COS-SSTR).

In this study, a compressed oxygen gas supply was connected to a sealed aerated stirred tank reactor (COS-SSTR) bio-system, leading to a high-oxygen pressure bioreactor used to improve the bio-transformative performance in the production of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone (DHA) from glycerol using Gluconobacter oxydans NL71. A concentration of 301.2 ± 8.2 g L(-1) DHA was obtained from glycerol after 32 h of fed-batch fermentation in the COS-SSTR system. The volumetric productivity for this process was 9.41 ± 0.23 g L(-1) h(-1), which is presently the highest obtained level of glycerol bioconversion into DHA. These results show that the application of this bioreactor would enable microbial production of DHA from glycerol at the industrial scale.