Modelling of Biosurfactant Production by Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Using Red Cashew (Anacardium Accidentale) Pomace as Substrate; A Response Surface Methodology Approach

Biosurfactants are amphiphilic compounds produced by microorganisms as secondary metabolite. Its unique properties such as low toxicity, higher biodegradability, mild process conditions, higher foaming capacity, temperature, pH and salinity stability and synthesis under user-friendly conditions makes them possible to replace synthetic surfactants which are mainly used in food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries and in environmental applications. In this study, biosurfactant production by P. aeruginosa was investigated as well as the influence of fermentation factors (stay time, pH and salinity), the result showed that increased in pH to alkaline medium favoured the biosurfactant yield, as the stay time increased to 4days the yield increased, the optimum salinity was found to be 1.5w/v. Optimization of the process was carried out using response surface methodology adopting Box-behnkien design. The selected factors were stay time, pH and salinity and the optimum time for biosurfactant production is 6 days, optimum pH of 8 and a salinity level of 1.0% (w/v), also a second order polynomial model was generated which was found significant across all model criteria