Limited oxygen conditions as an approach to scale-up and improve d and l-lactic acid production in mineral media and avocado seed hydrolysates with metabolically engineered Escherichia coli

The effectiveness of micro-aeration on lactate (LA) production by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli was evaluated in 1 L bioreactors containing mineral media and glucose (70 g/L). Volumetric oxygen transfer coefficients (kLa) between 12.6 and 28.7 h−1 increased the specific growth rate (µ) and volumetric productivity (QLA) by 300 and 400%, respectively, without a significant decrease in lactate yield (YLA), when compared with non-aerated fermentations. A kLa of 12.6 h−1 was successfully used as a criterion to scale-up the production of l and d-lactate from 1 to 11 and 130 L. Approximately constant QLA and YLA values were obtained throughout the fermentation scale-up process. Furthermore, a d-lactogenic fermentation was carried out in 1 L bioreactors using avocado seed hydrolysate as a culture medium under the same kLa value, displaying high QLA and YLA.