Production of Rhamnolipid Biosurfactant from Fed Batch Culture by Pseudomonas aeruginosa using Multiple Substrates

Objective: Biosurfactants are the surface active agents which are used for the reduction of surface and interfacial tensions of liquids. Rhamnolipids are the surfactants produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It requires minimum nutrition for its growth as it can also grow in distilled water. The rhamnolipids produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa are extra-cellular glycolipids consisting of L-rhamnose and 3-hydroxyalkanoic acid. Methods: The fed-batch method for the rhamnolipid production is considered in this study to know the influence of the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous substrates as growth-limiting nutrients. Pulse feeding is employed for limiting nutrient addition at particular time interval to obtain maximum rhamnolipid formation from Pseudomonas aeruginosa compared with the batch process. Results: Out of 3 fed batch strategies constant glucose fed batch strategy shows best and gave maximum rhamnolipid concentration of 0.134 g/l.