Arachidonic acid-rich oil production by Mortierella alpina with different gas distributors

Arachidonic acid (ARA)-rich oil production by Mortierella alpina is a high oxygen demand and shear-sensitive process. In the aerobic fermentation process, oxygen supply is usually a limiting factor owing to the low solubility of oxygen in the fermentation broth. Two kinds of perforated ring gas distributors and a novel microporous ceramic membrane gas distributor were designed and applied to improve oxygen supply. With the decrease of the orifice diameter of perforated ring gas distributors, dry cell weight (DCW), lipids concentration, and ARA content in total fatty acid increased from 17.86 g/L, 7.08 g/L, and 28.08% to 25.67 g/L, 11.94 g/L, and 36.99%, respectively. Furthermore, the effect of different dissolved oxygen (DO) on ARA-rich oil production with membrane gas distributor was also studied. The maximum DCW, lipid concentration, and ARA content using membrane gas distributor with DO controlled at 40% reached 29.67 g/L, 16.74 g/L, and 49.53%, respectively. The ARA titer increased from 1.99 to 8.29 g/L using the membrane gas distributor to substitute the perforated ring gas distributor. In the further experiment, a novel tubular titanium metal membrane gas distributor was successfully applied in a 7,000 L bioreactor and the results demonstrated that membrane gas distributor was industrially practical.