Enhanced Fermentation for Rhamnolipid Production in a Membrane Bioreactor with a New Strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa BC1

A novelfermentation process was conducted to enhance rhamnolipid(RL) production with a new strain Pseudomonasaeruginosa BC1 (P. aeruginosa BC1)in a pervaporation membrane bioreactor. The strain P. aeruginosa BC1 which can produce glycolipid biosurfactants rhamnolipids(RLs)was isolated from oil-field wastewater by the screeningand purification process. Furthermore, one fermentation and membraneseparation technology pervaporation were coupled toenhance the RL production by in situ removing the volatile organiccompounds, which possibly inhibit the cell growth, with the membranetechnology. When glucose and glycerol were utilized as carbon sourcesseparately, RL production from the fermentation-membrane separationcoupling system was elevated by 38 (up to 1.6 g/L) and 134% (up to3.6 g/L), respectively, compared with the fermentation without membraneseparation. With the broth and extracted RLs, oil displacement experimentspresented 76% heavy oil stripping from artificial quartz sand.