Process for producing erythritol

Abstract

A process is disclosed for continuously producing erythritol by cultivating erythritol-producing microorganisms under aerobic conditions. The process comprises the steps of: maintaining the concentration of dissolved oxygen in a culture broth in a fermentation tank at not less than 0.2 ppm; separating a part of the culture broth into a concentrated liquid in which the concentration of cells is increased and a clarified liquid by a cell separator; returning the concentrated liquid to the fermentation tank; controlling an amount of the clarified liquid to be extracted outside an erythritol-producing system and an amount of the culture broth and/or the concentrated liquid to be extracted outside the producing system such that the concentration of the cells in the culture broth in the fermentation tank may be kept in a range from 40 to 200 g/l when calculated as a weight of dried cells; and recovering erythritol from the clarified liquid. The clarified liquid containing erythritol may be separated from the culture broth by a cell separator arranged inside the fermentation tank, and the extracting amount of the erythritol-containing clarified liquid separated by the cell separator and an amount of the culture broth to be extracted may be controlled such that the concentration of the cells in the culture broth may be kept at 40 to 200 g/l when calculated as a weight of dried cells.