Production of erythritol by Yarrowia species from crude glycerol

Abstract

Erythritol is a four-carbon sugar alcohol that has about 70 % of the sweetness of sucrose. Erythritol is mostly produced by fermentation from glucose or glycerol using osmophilic fungi. In this work different strains and species of Yarrowia genus were evaluated for their ability to produce erythritol from crude glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel industry. The performance of strains from Y. lipolytica and Y. divulgata species was compared in flasks batch culture. All strains were able to produce erythritol in the tested conditions. Y. lipolytica W29 strain presented the highest concentration, yield and productivity of erythritol. A scale-up to a lab-scale stirred tank bioreactor using two different operation modes, batch and step-wise fed-batch was performed. With the scale-up 3-fold increase on productivity was observed. In the step-wise fed-batch the addition of glycerol allowed to reach almost the double of erythritol concentrations (64 g L-1).