Title of article :
Production of Citric Acid from the Fermentation of Pineapple Waste by Aspergillus niger
Author/Authors :
Ayeni, Augustine. O Chemical Engineering Department - College of Engineering - Covenant University, Nigeria , Daramola, Michael O School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment - University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa , Taiwo, Olugbenga Biological Sciences Department - College of Science and technology - Covenant University, Nigeria , Olanrewaju, Omowonuola I Chemical Engineering Department - College of Engineering - Covenant University, Nigeria , Oyekunle, Daniel T Chemical Engineering Department - College of Engineering - Covenant University, Nigeria , Sekoai, Patrick T Hydrogen Infrastructure Centre of Competence - Faculty of Engineering - North-West University, South Africa , Elehinafe, Francis B. Chemical Engineering Department - College of Engineering - Covenant University, Nigeria
Abstract :
Background:
Citric acid, aside its uses as a cleaning agent, has varied applications in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries. A biotechnological fermentation process is one of the easiest ways to satisfy the demands for this useful commodity.
Methods:
The fermentation of pineapple waste by Aspergillus niger for the production of citric acid was investigated in this study. STATISTICA 8 release 7 (Statsoft, Inc. USA) statistical software was used for the design of experiments, evaluation, and optimization of the process using the central composite design (CCD), a response surface methodology approach. Lower-upper limits of the design for the operating parameters were temperature (25-35 oC), fermentation time (35-96 h), pH (3-6), methanol concentration (1-7%) and glucose (15-85 g/L). Twenty-seven duplicated experimental runs were generated for the CCD route.
Results & Conclusion:
The optimal operating conditions were validated at 38 g/L of glucose concentration, 3% (v/v) of methanol, 50 h of fermentation time, pH of 4.3 and temperature of 30 oC which yielded15.51 g/L citric acid. The statistical significance of the model was evaluated using a one-way analysis of variance. The validated predicted response values obtained from the statistical model showed close relationships with the experimental data.
Keywords :
Citric acid , Central composite design , Pineapple waste , Fermentation , Statistical optimization , Aspergillus niger
Journal title :
Open Chemical Engineering Journal
