Xylonic Acid Production From Xylose By Paraburkholderia Sacchari

Paraburkholderia sacchari revealed an outstanding ability to metabolize D-xylose to xylonic acid. The work described here aimed at finding the operational conditions to promote the production of xylonic acid in bioreactors. Fed-batch assays using xylose as the sole substrate for growth and production attained a xylonic acid concentration of 150 g L-1, corresponding to a productivity of 1.5 g L-1 h(-1) and a yield of xylonic acid over xylose (Y-P/S) of 0.63 g(XylAc)/g(Xyl). When glucose and xylose were used sequentially for growth and production respectively, xylonic acid concentrations in the range 370-390 g L-1 were observed, resulting in a volumetric productivity of 6.4-7.7 g L-1 h(-1) and a yield of 1.1 g(XylAc)/g(Xyl), matching the theoretical yield. These very competitive results were achieved using a simple process set-up.