Inulinase production in a packed bed reactor by solid state fermentation

In this work, production of inulinase was carried out in a packed bed reactor (PBR) under solid state fermentation. Kluyveromyces marxianus var. marxianus was used to produce the inulinase using pressmud as substrate. The parameters like air flow rate, packing density and particle size were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) to maximize the inulinase production. The optimum conditions for the maximum inulinase production were: air flow rate – 0.82 L/min, packing density – 40 g/L and particle size – 0.0044 mm (mesh – 14/20). At these optimized conditions, the production of inulinase was found to be 300.5 unit/gram of dry substrate (U/gds).