Alginic acid: bacterial

Other examples of exocellular homopolysaccharides whose biosynthetic process has been investigated include D-mannuronan,204,205 an intermediate in the biosynthesis of bacterial alginic acid (mentioned in Section III,l,c), and bacterial cellulose. 

The extracellular polysaccharides produced by bacteria are believed to be composed of acidic and neutral sugars. Gum arabic and alginic acid were selected to simulate a bacterial glycocalyx. Gum arabic is composed of... 

Acetic acid Glyoxylic scid Oxalic acid L-Alanine L-Glutamine L-Histidine Alginate Bacterial cellulose Curdlan... 

Recent examples of process improvement have been reported by Davison and Thomson [11] and Kaufman et al. [12]. They studied the simultaneous fermentation and recovery of lactic acid in a biparticle fluidized-bed reactor using L. delbreuckii as the biocatalyst. The immobilized bacterial cells (on calcium alginate beads of 0.7-0.8 mm diameter) were fluidized in the liquid media in a column reactor (see Fig. 1). During fermentation, solid particles of lactic acid adsorbent (polyvinylpyridine resin) are added batchwise to the top of the reactor, and fall countercurrently through the biocatalyst. After the adsorbents have fallen through the reactor, they are recovered and the adsorbed lactic acid is recovered. The adsorbents not only remove acid produced but also effectively maintain the broth pH at optimal levels. The increase in lactic acid production is significant. The reported volumetric productivity of 4.6 g/l/h was a 12-fold increase over the reactor without the adsorbents. 

The cell as a biosynthesis machine can use cheap carbon sources (waste products) as precursor substrates to produce bacterial polymers. However, the in vitro synthesis of biopolymers requires costly purified key enzymes and precursor molecules such as ATP, coal, coal bolsters, and nucleotide sugars or sugar acids to synthesize polymers such as PHA, cellulose, alginate, and PGA. Consequently, these polymers have limited commercial applicability due to their very high production costs. It is estimated the production of PHB by in vitro synthesis would amount to a cost of around US 286,000 per gram of PHB whereas, bacterial production of PHB was estimated to cost about 0.0025 per gram of PHB, and this is still 5-10 times as expensive to produce as the respective petroleum-based polymers. 

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