Efficient 1,3-propanediol Production by Fed-Batch Culture of Klebsiella Pneumoniae: The Role of pH Fluctuation

The fermentative production of 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) by Klebsiella pneumoniae under different fed-batch strategies was investigated. pH-stat fed-batch strategies proved to be not effective for economical 1,3-PD production for the existence of relatively high concentration of byproducts and residual glycerol at the end of the fermentation. However, in the pH-stat fed-batch strategy, an important phenomenon was observed that the yields of two main byproducts, 2,3-butanediol and lactic acid, were closely related to pH value. The dominant byproduct was 2,3-butanediol at a pH value of 5.0 to 6.5 but changed to be lactic acid at a pH value of 7.1 to 8.0. Based on the analysis of the phenomenon, a self-protection mechanism in K. pneumoniae, namely that the growing K. pneumoniae cells switch the metabolic pathways responding to environmental pH changes, was proposed. Thus a kind of feeding strategy was further applied during which the pH value was fluctuated between 6.3 and 7.3 periodically by feeding glycerol–ammonia mixture and sulphuric acid to make the metabolic pathways of 2,3-butanediol and lactic acid sub-active under the periodical low or high pH stress. At last, efficient 1,3-PD production was fulfilled under this fed-batch strategy, and the best results were achieved leading to 70 g/l 1,3-PD with a yield of 0.70 mol/mol glycerol and productivity of 0.97 g/l/h, while the two main byproducts and residual glycerol were under low concentrations.