A kinetic model of batch fermentation for fumaric acid production by rhizopus oryzae

Kinetic model has important significance for both theory and practice studies on microorganism cultivation. The process of Rhizopus oryzae fermentation in a 7 L fermentor with glucose as the carbon limiting substrate for producing fumaric acid was analyzed. Based on the Logistic and Luedeking-Piret equations, the mathematic models of mycelia growth, fumaric acid production and substrate consumption were developed to describe the fermentation process mentioned above. The kinetic parameters of the established models were determined by Runge-Kutta method. According to the models, the calculating results agree with the experimental data well and the deviations between them are within 5%, which indicates that the proposed kinetic models can well describe the kinetic mechanism of the fumaric acid production by Rhizopus oryzae, and they further provide the theoretical bases for the industrial-scale fumaric acid production by fermentation process.