Fatemeh Ardestanii - Department of Chemical Engineering, Qaemshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr, Iran

The lignocellulosic wastes produced in food industries are suitable raw materials for the production of biological products. In this study, the solid state fermentation of Aspergillus flavus on lignocellulosic wastes was evaluated for microbial protein production. The fraction of the full factorial method was applied for experiment design and process optimization. The results analysis was performed through signal to noise statistical index using the Taguchi approach via Qualitek-4 software. Glycine, ammonium sulfate and iron sulfate concentration as well as temperature were considered as effective parameters. The maximum biomass concentration of 45.7 g/kg containing 55.75% (w/w) pure protein was obtained at optimal conditions including 0.5, 0.02, and 2 g/kg of ammonium sulfate, iron sulfate and glycine, respectively, at 25 °C. Ammonium sulfate (33.78% (w/w) contribution) and culture temperature (31.98% contribution) were evaluated as the most effective factors on biomass and microbial protein production. The highest interaction occurred between ammonium sulfate and glycine with an interaction severity index of 50.03%. The low deviation of 3.94% was determined between optimum theoretical biomass concentration (43.9 g/kg) and the experimentally measured one (45.7 g/kg). Due to the high protein content of 55.75% (w/w), Aspergillus flavus was introduced as a suitable strain for industrial protein production.

Aspergillus flavus ،Bioremediation ،Lignocellulosic wastes ،Microbial protein ،Solid-state fermentation