The growing consumer demand for natural products led to an increasing interest in vanillin production by biotechnological routes. In this work, the biotechnological vanillin production by Amycolatopsis sp. ATCC 39116 is studied using ferulic acid as precursor, aiming to achieve maximized vanillin productivities. During biotech-vanillin production, the effects of glucose, vanillin and ferulic acid concentrations in the broth proved to be relevant for vanillin productivity. Concerning glucose, its presence in the broth during the production phase avoids vanillin conversion to vanillic acid and, consequently, increases vanillin production. To avoid the accumulation of vanillin up to a toxic concentration level, a multiple-pulse-feeding strategy is implemented, with intercalated vanillin removal from the broth and biomass recovery. This strategy turned out fruitful, leading to 0.46 g L-1 h-1 volumetric productivity of vanillin of and a production yield of 0.69 gvanillin gferulic acid-1, which are among the highest values reported in the literature for non-modified bacteria.
Keywords: Biotech vanillin; Ferulic acid; Pulse feeding strategy.