Multifactorial Approach to Biosurfactant Production by Adaptive Strain Candida tropicalis MTCC 230 in the Presence of Hydrocarbons

In this study, Candida tropicalis MTCC 230 was used to adapted in hydrocarbon along with glucose for biosurfactant production, showing diauxic growth during the production. Biosurfactant was characterized through TLC and FTIR analysis as surfactin, a lipopeptide. Process parameters were optimized one factor at a time, showing the highest emulsification index (%E (24)) at 54 %. The production of biosurfactant was enhanced by using biostatistically based experimental design with the interactive effect of different parameters. On the basis of Placket-Burman design, four factors, hydrocarbon, ammonium chloride, microelements and temperature are found to be significant (P < 0.05) for the production of biosurfactant. A second order polynomial regression model in central composite design estimated the maximum biosurfactant production in terms of the emulsification index (%E (24)). The optimum combination of different parameters for the biosurfactant production, obtained for hydrocarbon, ammonium chloride, microelements and temperature are 81.41 %, 1.63 (g/l), 1.69 (g/l) and 35.25 A degrees C, respectively. The biosurfactant production was increased twofold after optimization and selection of interactive parameters by response surface methodology.