Newly developed medium and strategy for bacterial cellulose production

• Bacterial cellulose (BC) production medium and operation was developed.
• Effect of ethanol and mixing type to BC production was showed.
• Effect of surface area/volume ratio to BC production and tensile strengths of BCs showed.
• Cost of media was evaluated based on BC yield.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has unique properties, such as high crystallinity, a high degree of polymerisation, high tensile strength and high purity, compared with native cellulose. In this study, a previously determined BC production medium was improved in static culture, and the production cost was evaluated and compared with molasses and with other defined media, such as Hestrin–Schramm, Zhou, Yamanaka and Park, using Gluconacetobacter xylinus. In addition to this analysis, because the surface area/volume ratio is an important parameter in static culture, different surface area/volume ratios were analysed in the range of 0.2–1.46. The defined medium (M1A05P5) and culture type contained glucose (10 g/L), yeast extract (10 g/L), peptone (7 g/L), acetic acid (1.5 ml/L), and ethanol (5 ml/L), and the pH was adjusted to 5.0 in static culture. The highest productivity was observed in the M1A05P5 medium that was 5-fold higher than either molasses or Park's medium. Although the molasses medium was proposed as a cost-effective medium, the production price of BC was the lowest in the M1A05P5 medium. Therefore, the newly developed medium and strategy were highly promising candidates for the industrial-scale production of BC.

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