The bagasse of four different particle sizes was used to prepare four types of medium viz. M1 (particles <0.64),M2 (particles between 0.64 and 1.2 mm), M3 (particles between 1.2 and 1.6 mm) M4 (particles between 1.6 and 2.0 mm). Fermentation was carried out at a moisture level of 65% and sugar level 29.6 g/100 g of dry solid, for the production of citric acid. Results are shown in Fig. 2 and some calculated data are given in Table 1. The maximum concentration of citric acid in medium M1, M2, M3 andM4 was 9.2, 10.4, 10.9 and 8.6 g/100 g of dry solid, after 9 days of fermentation. The maximum citric acid production was obtained from media M3. The rate of citric acid production was also maximal in M3 media. The lowest citric acid production was obtained from M4.
Citric acid production in media M2 was very close to M3 whereas in M1 citric acid production was less. This is presumably due to medium containing larger particles
(M3) exhibiting high porosity and hence resulting in better heat and mass transfer, which increased citric acid production. However, very large particles of the medium
(M4) reduced substrate availability to the microbe, resulting in lower citric acid production. In the case of smaller particles of the medium (M1), heat and mass
transfer was poor resulting in poor citric acid production.The optimum particle size of the medium was M3 which was selected for further studies.
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