Abstract
Glycerol is a major by-product from biodiesel production, and develo** new uses for glycerol is imperative to overall economics and sustainability of the biodiesel industry. With the aim of producing xylitol and/or arabitol as the value-added products from glycerol, 214 yeast strains, many osmotolerant, were first screened in this study. No strains were found to produce large amounts of xylitol as the dominant metabolite. Some produced polyol mixtures that might present difficulties to downstream separation and purification. Several Debaryomyces hansenii strains produced arabitol as the predominant metabolite with high yields, and D. hansenii strain SBP-1 (NRRL Y-7483) was chosen for further study on the effects of several growth conditions. The optimal temperature was found to be 30°C. Very low dissolved oxygen concentrations or anaerobic conditions inhibited polyol yields. Arabitol yield improved with increasing initial glycerol concentrations, reaching approximately 50% (w/w) with 150 g/L initial glycerol. However, the osmotic stress created by high salt concentrations (≥50 g/L) negatively affected arabitol production. Addition of glucose and xylose improved arabitol production while addition of sorbitol reduced production. Results from this work show that arabitol is a promising value-added product from glycerol using D. hansenii SBP-1 as the producing strain.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler L, Gustafsson L (1980) Polyhydric alcohol production and intracellular amino acid pool in relation to halotolerance of the yeast Debaryomyces hansenii. Arch Microbiol 124(2):123–130
Babel W, Hofmann KH (1982) The relation between the assimilation of methanol and glycerol in yeasts. Arch Microbiol 132(2):179–184
Bernard EM, Christiansen KJ, Tsang SF, Kiehn TE, Armstrong D (1981) Rate of arabinitol production by pathogenic yeast species. J Clin Microbiol 14(2):189–194
Bis** B, Baumann U, Simmering R (1996) Effect of immobilization on polyol production by Pichia farinosa. Prog Biotechnol 11:395–401
Blakley ER, Spencer JF (1962) Studies on the formation of D-arabitol by osmophilic yeasts. Can J Biochem Physiol 40:1737–1748
Bournay L, Casanave D, Delfort B, Hillion G, Chodorge JA (2005) New heterogeneous process for biodiesel production: a way to improve the quality and the value of the crude glycerin produced by biodiesel plants. Cat Today 106(1–4):190–192
Buhner J, Agblevor FA (2004) Effect of detoxification of dilute-acid corn fiber hydrolysate on xylitol production. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 119(1):13–30
Crick R (1961) Improvements in or relating to sweetening agents for food. vol. US patent 884,961
Dasari MA, Kiatsimkul PP, Sutterlin WR, Suppes GJ (2005) Low-pressure hydrogenolysis of glycerol to propylene glycol. Appl Catal A Gen 281(1–2):225–231
Demirbas A (2003) Biodiesel fuels from vegetable oils via catalytic and non-catalytic supercritical alcohol transesterifications and other methods: a survey. Energy Convers Manag 44(13):2093–2109
Gancedo C, Gancendo JM, Sols A (1968) Pathways of utilization and production. Eur J Biochem 5(2):165–172
Gare F (2003) The sweet miracle of xylitol: the all natural sugar substitute approved by the FDA as a food additive. Basic Health, North Bergen
Groleau D, Chevalier P, Yuen T (1995) Production of polyols and ethanol by the osmophilic yeast Zygosaccharomyces rouxii. Biotechnol Lett 17(3):315–320
Haas MJ, McAloon AJ, Yee WC, Foglia TA (2006) A process model to estimate biodiesel production costs. Bioresour Technol 97(4):671–678
Hajny GJ (1964) D-Arabitol production by Endomycopsis chodati. Appl Environ Microbiol 12(1):87–92
Huck JHJ, Roos B, Jakobs C, van der Knaap MS, Verhoeven NM (2004) Evaluation of pentitol metabolism in mammalian tissues provides new insight into disorders of human sugar metabolism. Mol Genet Metabol 82(3):231–237
Ingram JM, Wood WA (1965) Enzymatic basis for D-arabitol production by Saccharomyces rouxii 1. J Bacteriol 89(5):1186–1194
Kastner JR, Eiteman MA, Lee SA (2003) Effect of redox potential on stationary-phase xylitol fermentations using Candida tropicalis. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 63(1):96–100
Kim JH, Han KC, Koh YH, Ryu YW, Seo JH (2002) Optimization of fed-batch fermentation for xylitol production by Candida tropicalis. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 29(1):16–19
Krawczyk T (1996) Biodiesel-alternative fuel makes inroads but hurdles remain. Inf 7(8):801–808
Lages F, Lucas C (1997) Physiological characterization of mediated glycerol uptake in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biochim Biophys Acta 1322:8–18
Larsson C, Morales C, Gustafsson L, Adler L (1990) Osmoregulation of the salt-tolerant yeast Debaryomyces hansenii grown in a chemostat at different salinities. J Bacteriol 172(4):1769–1774
Le Tourneau D (1966) Trehalose and acyclic polyols in sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Mycol 58(6):934–942
Leathers TD, Dien BS (2000) Xylitol production from corn fibre hydrolysates by a two-stage fermentation process. Process Biochem 35(8):765–769
Liu Y, Liu D, Su Q, Liu J, **e D (2002) Critical influence of osmotic pressure on continuous production of glycerol by an osmophilic strain of Candida krusei in a multistage cascade bioreactor. Process Biochem 38(3):427–432
McCormick DB, Touster O (1961) Conversion of D-[1–14c] arabitol, l-[1–14c] arabitol, and D-[1–14c] ribitol to liver glycogen in the rat and guinea-pig. Biochim Biophys Acta 54(3):598–600
Melaja AJ, Hamalainen L (1977) Process for making xylitol. US patent 4(008):285
Mitchell HL (2006) Sweeteners and sugar alternatives in food technology. Blackwell, Oxford
National Biodiesel Board (2007) Fuel facts sheets. <http://www.Biodiesel.Org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/backgrounder.pdf>
Nobre MF, Costa MS (1985) The accumulation of polyols by the yeast Debaryomyces hansenii in response to water stress. Can J Microbiol 31(11):1061–1064
Norkrans B (1966) Studies on marine occurring yeasts: growth related to pH, NaCl concentration and temperature. Arch Microbiol 54(4):374–392
Nozaki H, Suzuki S, Tsuyoshi N, Yokozeki K (2003) Production of D-arabitol by Metschnikowia reukaufii aj14787. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 67(9):1923–1929
Onishi H, Shiromaru Y (1984) Physiological changes induced by salt stress in a salt-tolerant soy-yeast, Saccharomyces rouxii. FEMS Microbiol Lett 25(2–3):175–178
Saha BC, Sakakibara Y, Cotta MA (2007) Production of D-arabitol by a newly isolated Zygosaccharomyces rouxii. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 34(7):519–523
Scangos GA, Reiner AM (1979) A unique pattern of toxic synthesis in pentitol catabolism: implications for evolution. J Mol Evol 12(3):189–195
Spencer JF (1968) Production of polyhydric alcohols by yeasts. Prog Ind Microbiol 7:1–42
Sugiyama M, Suzuki S, Tonouchi N, Yokozeki K (2003) Cloning of the xylitol dehydrogenase gene from gluconobacter oxydans and improved production of xylitol from D-arabitol. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 67(3):584–591
Suzuki S, Sugiyama M, Mihara Y, Hashiguchi K, Yokozeki K (2002) Novel enzymatic method for the production of xylitol from D-arabitol by Gluconobacter oxydans. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 66(12):2614–2620
Talja RA, Roos YH (2001) Phase and state transition effects on dielectric, mechanical, and thermal properties of polyols. Thermochim Acta 380(2):109–121
Tokuoka K (1993) Sugar- and salt-tolerant yeasts. J Appl Bacteriol 74(2):101–110
Van Eck JH, Prior BA, Brandt EV (1989) Accumulation of polyhydroxy alcohols by Hansenula anomala in response to water stress. J Gen Microbiol 135(12):3505–3513
Werpy T, Petersen G (2004) Top value added chemicals from biomass: volume 1-results of screening for potential candidates from sugars and synthesis gas. DOE/GO-102004-1992. National Renewable Energy Lab, Golden
Wilson BL, Mortlock RP (1973) Regulation of D-xylose and D-arabitol catabolism by Aerobacter aerogenes. J Bacteriol 113(3):1404–1411
Acknowledgment
The work was supported by a grant from the United Soybean Board (Projects 7435, 8435, and 9435). We thank Karen Ray for technical advice.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Koganti, S., Kuo, T.M., Kurtzman, C.P. et al. Production of arabitol from glycerol: strain screening and study of factors affecting production yield. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 90, 257–267 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-3015-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-3015-3