Use of Glycerol for the Production of Actinobacteria with Well-Known Bioremediation Abilities

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the remediation of contaminated environments, and a suitable solution is in situ bioremediation. To achieve this, large-scale bacterial biomass production should be sustainable, using economic culture media. The main aim of this study was to optimize the physicochemical conditions for the biomass production of an actinobacterium with well-known bioremediation ability using inexpensive substrates and to scale-up its production in a bioreactor. For this, the growth of four strains of actinobacteria were evaluated in minimal medium with glucose and glycerol as carbon and energy sources. In addition, l-asparagine and ammonium sulfate were assayed as alternative nitrogen sources. The strain Streptomyces sp. A5 showed the highest biomass production in shake-flasks culture using glycerol and ammonium sulfate as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. Factorial designs with five factors (glycerol concentration, inoculum size, pH, temperature, and agitation) were employed to optimize the biomass production of Streptomyces sp. A5. The maximum biomass production was obtained using 5 g L−1 of glycerol, 0.25 µL of inoculum, pH 7, 30 °C and 200 rpm. Finally, the production was successfully scaled to a 2 L stirred tank bioreactor.