submerged fermentation as a suitable solution to produce humic and fulvic acids from sugarcane bagasse

Ha and fa are classified as precious compounds in the agricultural and biomedical industries. the production of these compounds from sb, using ssf and smf systems compared in a 220-liter bioreactor over 70 days. initially, fourteen treatments examined to determine the best treatment with a proper c/n ratio. among examined treatments, bffu characterized as the most effective mixture (c/n ratio 32.5). the results obtained via ssf using bffu treatment were 3.96 and 2.36% dm for ha and fa, respectively. the most efficient treatment and fermentation system implemented via two different bioreactor volumes (60 and 1000 liter) to compare the appropriate condition for higher yield. in contrast with ssf, production yield via the smf system resulted in a higher yield in half of the processing time. these results were almost 3 times more than the ssf results that scaled up to 12.84 and 7.91% dm over a period of 36 days. whereas, these results were slightly higher applying 1000 liter cstr that was 14.25 and 8.39% dm over 35 days. the ftir analysis has shown structural similarities between sb-derived ha and fa in the present study with the commercial counterpart with highly strong and strong peaks for functional groups.