Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Bisinformatix, Inc.

Pyung Cheon Lee

Ho Nam Chang

Sang Yup Lee

Yong Keun Chang

Seong Jin Lim

Woo-Gi Lee

Sun Hoon Kwon

Woo Gi Lee

Ik Keun Yoo

A novel microorganism capable of producing organic acids,sp. 55E, and a process for producing organic acid through anaerobic and aerobic incubation using the novel microorganism are provided. The method of producing an organic acid using the microorganism involves incubatingsp. 55E with Accession Number KCTC 0769BP in a medium under anaerobic or aerobic conditions and obtaining an organic acid from the medium.sp. 55E produces succinic acid, lactic acid, and formic acid under anaerobic conditions saturated with CO, and succinic acid, lactic acid, acetic acid, and formic acid under aerobic or Nanaerobic conditions.sp. 55E is a facultative anaerobe tolerant of oxygen. Thus, the use ofsp. 55E in producing organic acids can eliminate a problem of process instability, which would occur by the presence of oxygen in a fermentation process of producing organic acids using an obligate anaerobic microorganism.

Organic acid producing microorganism and process for preparing organic acids employing the same

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing organic acid by high-efficiency fermentation, which comprises the steps of continuous culture of organic acid bacteria and collection of organic acid produced from the culture employing a cell-recycle multiple-stage continuous fermentor with serially connected fermentors, each of which comprises a fermentor containing a ferment container, temperature controller, stirrer, and pH controller; pumps for efflux-circulation of media from the fermentor; and, cell separator for separation and circulation of media from the pumps. According to the present method, the high-concentration lactic acid of 90 g/L can be produced with the high productivity of 50 g/L/h, which can reduce the facility cost and production cost in the bulk manufacturing process. In addition, the present invention can be effectively applied to the production of other organic acids such as acetic acid, formic acid, citric acid, malic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, and succinic acid, which show the end-product inhibition.

Method for manufacturing organic acid by high-efficiency continuous fermentation

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Daejeon, South Korea

Pyung Cheon Lee