Feed Stuff Production from Methanol by Methylotrophic Microorganisms

Methanol has been of great interest as a substrate for production as a novel feed grade proteinin iran. up to 160 methylotrophic strains were isolated at the jahad-e agriculture researchengineering center for scientific research and various batch experiments were carried out atdifferent ph, temperature, agitation, aeration rate and methanol concentrations. by theseexperiments, optimum production conditions were determined for one of the strains using thetaguchi method. the results showed optimum ph around 8 at temperatures of 26 to 30°c,aeration equal to 3 vvm and agitation about 800 rpm. the methanol was found to be optimumat concentration equal to 18 g.l^-1. in this condition, the biomass yield coefficient was 0.52gig methanol, biomass dry weight was 20-25 gil and the crude protein content was about 7078%.a deep jet fermentor of 1 m3 capacity, with a working volume of 600 liters, was used forscp production using isolated strains. in this continuous system, dilution rates ranging from0.15 to 0.2 lit.h^- 1 were used to establish optimal condition for biomass production. underthis condition, 30 kg cell dry weight per day was obtained. these experiments showed thatthe selected methylotrophic strain has good potential for scp production from methanol as asubstrate.