Development of a Rotating Drum Reactor with a Novel Temperature Control System for Solid State Fermentation

Abstract

A rotating drum reactor with a novel temperature control system was developed for solid state fermentation and the reactor was used for glucoamylase production from potato processing waste. The substrate temperature was maintained below set point by evaporative cooling to remove excess metabolic heat and in this way, the moisture content of the substrate was maintained within the desired range during the cultivation. Contrary to moisture content increase which disturbed uniform mixing of substrate on non-controlled culture, the uniform mixing was achieved on the culture using temperature control system. Doubling the quantity of substrate in the reactor did not affect the productivity of glucoamylase. The above results imply that this system has great potential for large scale processes.