Improving the production of fungal exopolysaccharides with application of repeated batch fermentation technology coupling with foam separation in the presence of surfactant

Biotechnology is designed to provide enhanced better services to human life. The current manuscript focuses on the development of exopolysaccharides (EPSs) produced by Cordyceps militaris in order to solve the problems of low productivity and high cost in downstream separation. The experiment of repeated batch fermentation coupling with foam separation in the presence of a surfactant was designed to achieve this goal. The EPSs production reached 1.313 g/L by adding 0.1 % (v/v) of tween 80 on the 4 th day. Repeated batch fermentation coupling with foam separation was performed for five batches in 13 days. During the coupling process, the enrichment ratio and recovery percentage of EPSs were maintained at 2.4 and 60 %, respectively. Meanwhile, at recycling processes, the mycelium from the foamate of batch II displayed EPSs production of 1.567 g/L, which was higher than the control group (1.024 g/L). The study demonstrated that this technology would be promising for improving the EPSs production.