Crude glycerol as feedstock for the sustainable production of p-hydroxybenzoate by Pseudomonas putida S12

Crude glycerol is a promising renewable feedstock in bioconversion processes for the production of fuels and chemicals. Impurities present in crude glycerol can however, negatively impact the fermentation process. Successful crude glycerol utilization requires robust microbial production hosts that tolerate and preferably, can utilize such impurities. We investigated utilization of crude, unpurified glycerol as a substrate for the production of aromatic compounds by solvent tolerant Pseudomonas putida S12. In high-cell density fed-batch fermentations, P. putida S12 surprisingly performed better on crude glycerol than on purified glycerol. By contrast, growth of Escherichia coli was severely compromised under these high cell density cultivation conditions on crude glycerol. For P. putida S12 the biomass-to-substrate yield, maximum biomass production rate and substrate uptake rate were consistently higher on crude glycerol. Moreover, production of p-hydroxybenzoate by engineered P. putida S12palB5 on crude glycerol showed a 10% yield improvement over production on purified glycerol. P. putida S12 is a favorable host for bioconversion processes utilizing crude glycerol as a substrate. Its intrinsic stress-tolerance properties provide the robustness required for efficient growth and metabolism on this renewable substrate.