Kinetics of Gibberella fujikuroi Growth and Gibberellic Acid Production by Solid-State Fermentation in a Packed-Bed Column Bioreactor

In this work the growth of Gibberella fujikuroi and gibberellic acid (GA3) production were studied using coffee husk and cassava bagasse as substrates in a packed-bed column bioreactor connected to a gas chromatograph for exit gas analysis. With the respirometric data, a logarithmic correlation between accumulated CO2 and biomass production was determined, and the kinetics of the fungal growth was compared for estimated and experimental data. The solid medium consisted of coffee husk (pretreated with alkali solution), mixed with cassava bagasse (7:3 dry weight basis), with a substrate initial pH of 5.2 and moisture of 77%. Cultivation was carried out in glass columns, which were packed with preinoculated substrate and with forced aeration of 0.24 L of air/[h (g of substrate)] for the first 3 days, and 0.72 L of air/[h (g of substrate)] for the remaining period. The maximum specific growth rate ((mu)m) obtained was 0.052 h^-1 (between 24 and 48 h of fermentation). A production of 0.925 g of GA3/kg of substrate was achieved after 6 days of fermentation.