Bioproduction of the aroma compound 2‐Phenylethanol in a solid–liquid two‐phase partitioning bioreactor system by Kluyveromyces marxianus

The rose‐like aroma compound 2‐phenylethanol (2‐PE) is an important fragrance and flavor ingredient. Several yeast strains are able to convert l‐phenylalanine (l‐phe) to 2‐PE among which Kluyveromyces marxianus has shown promising results. The limitation of this process is the low product concentration and productivity primarily due to end product inhibition. This study explored the possibility and benefits of using a solid–liquid Two‐Phase Partition Bioreactor (TPPB) system as an in situ product removal technique. The system applies polymer beads as the sequestering immiscible phase to partition 2‐PE and reduce the aqueous 2‐PE concentration to non‐inhibitory levels. Among six polymers screened for extracting 2‐PE, Hytrel® 8206 performed best with a partition coefficient of 79. The desired product stored in the polymer was ultimately extracted using methanol. A 3 L working volume solid–liquid batch mode TPPB using 500 g Hytrel® as the sequestering phase generated a final overall 2‐PE concentration of 13.7 g/L, the highest reported in the current literature. This was based on a polymer phase concentration of 88.74 g/L and aqueous phase concentration of 1.2 g/L. Even better results were achieved via contact with more polymers (approximately 900 g) with the aqueous phase applying a semi‐continuous reactor configuration. In this system, a final 2‐PE concentration (overall) of 20.4 g/L was achieved with 1.4 g/L in the aqueous and 97 g/L in the polymer phase. The overall productivities of these two reactor systems were 0.38 and 0.43 g/L h, respectively. This is the first report in the literature of the use of a polymer sequestering phase to enhance the bioproduction of 2‐PE, and exceeds the performance of two‐liquid phase systems in terms of productivity as well as ease of operation (no emulsions) and ultimate product recovery. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009; 104: 332–339 © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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