Indirect monitoring of acetate exhaustion and cell recycle improve lactate production by non-growing Escherichia coli

A two-phase, lactate fermentation by Escherichia coli ALS974 generates succinate and ethanol anaerobically from acetate. These by-products can be minimized by monitoring acetate concentration indirectly with dissolved O₂ (DO) during the initial aerobic cell-growth phase. Without DO monitoring, 3 g succinate/l and 1 g ethanol/l were generated while, with monitoring, less than 1 g succinate/l and no detectable ethanol were generated with 130 g lactate/l being produced. Furthermore, using a cell-recycle fermentation with ultrafiltration prolonged the anaerobic lactate production phase from 22 to 34 h, thereby achieving a lactate productivity of 4.2 g/l h, nearly 20% greater than the productivity of the fed-batch process.