Potentials of utilizing renewable resources of agriculture residues for the biosynthesis of bacterial cellulose nanofibers

In the present study, production of bacterial cellulose nanofibers from single sugars and sugar mixtures in feedstock was investigated using different culture methods. This includes production in shake flask, stirred tank and draft tube airlift bioreactors. There has been no previous work done other than this reported work concerning production of bacterial cellulose nanofibers using sugar mixtures. Fructose was found to be the top producer with 5.65 g/L of bacterial cellulose nanofibers. The different compositions of sugar mixtures tested in this study were identical to acid hydrolyzates of agricultural residues. Maximum yield of 17.72 g/L was observed with mixture that resembles the acid hydrolyzate of wheat straw. Modified stirred tank and airlift bioreactors showed higher production of bacterial cellulose nanofibers compared to shake flask. In general, results obtained in the present study demonstrate potential of improving production of nanofibers solely based on agricultural residues and using draft tube airlift bioreactors.