Effects of Dissolved Oxygen and Agitation on Production of Serratiopeptidase by Serratia Marcescens NRRL B-23112 in Stirred Tank Bioreactor and its Kinetic Modeling

The effects of the agitation and aeration rates on the production of serratiopeptidase (SRP) in a 5-L fermentor (working volume 2-l) were systematically investigated using Serratia marcescens NRRL B-23112. The dissolved oxygen concentration, pH, biomass, SRP yield, and maltose utilization were all continuously measured during the course of the fermentation runs. The efficiencies of the aeration and agitation were evaluated based on the volumetric mass transfer coefficient ($K_La$). The maximum SRP production of 11,580 EU/ml with a specific SRP productivity of 78.8 EU/g/h was obtained with an agitation of 400 rpm and aeration of 0.075 vvm, which was 58% higher than the shake-flask level. The $K_La$ for the fermentation system supporting the maximum production (400 rpm, 0.075 vvm) was 11.3 $h^{-1}$. Under these fermentor optimized conditions, kinetic modeling was performed to understand the detailed course of the fermentation process. The resulting logistic and Luedeking-Piret models provided an effective description of the SRP fermentation, where the correlation coefficients for cell growth, SRP formation, and substrate consumption were 0.99, 0.94, and 0.84, respectively, revealing a good agreement between the model-predicted and experimental results. The kinetic analysis of the batch fermentation process for the production of SRP demonstrated the SRP production to be mixed growth associated.