International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR) ISSN: 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P) Volume-7, Issue-9, September 2017 32 www.erpublication.org Abstract— Itaconic acid (IA) is a biobased building block of great interest for polymer of thermoplastic, resin, chelating agents, superabsorbent polymers (SAP), among many others. This study evaluated IA production by Aspergillus terreus with low-cost carbon – granulated sugar and VHP (very high polymerization) sugar – and nitrogen sources – ammonium nitrate and commercial urea. The highest final IA concentration was obtained with the combination of granulated sugar and NH4NO3 (40 g/L IA), while the fermentation of VHP sugar and NH4NO3 produced 25 g/L IA. The use of commercial urea resulted on low IA titers (about 8 g/L IA) with either granulated sugar or VHP sugar. Despite achievement of the highest values of IA production in granulated sugar medium, the lower cost of VHP motivated the evaluation of two different inoculum methods preparation to improve IA (spores and mycelia). The inoculum with mycelia resulted in 45 g/L IA, equivalent to the value obtained with granulated sugar inoculated with spores. Moreover, the productivity was over 3 times higher with mycelia instead of with spores (respectively 0.19 and 0.06 g/L/h). The yield of IA from the fermentation of VHP and NH4NO3 inoculated with mycelium was 53% of the theoretical. This study demonstrates the potential of VHP sugar as carbon source for IA production, which may be applied in a biorefinery concept. Index Terms— Aspergillus terreus, biorefinery, itaconic acid, VHP sugar.. I. INTRODUCTION The chemical industry gradual shift from petrochemicals to biobased chemicals, whether for economic or environment matter, or both, driving a great boost to develop new products as well as to improve the production or processes of the existing ones. In this scenario, itaconic acid (IA) is one of the building blocks of highest industrial interest [1][2][3]. Expected to have a global market over 216 billion by 2020 [4], the improvement of market competition with other products from renewable sources and from petrochemicals could be achieved with the decrease of feedstock costs with IA production [5]. Commercial IA is obtained by microbial fermentation, mainly by Aspergillus terreus with glucose [6], although sucrose is also a possible feedstock [7]. The use of residual materials as feedstocks could be an alternative for decreasing Juliana Cunha da Cruz, Departamento de Engenharia Bioquímica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Diogo Simas Bernades Dias, Departamento de Engenharia Bioquímica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Aline Machado de Castro, Divisão de Biotecnologia, Centro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento, Petrobras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 55 21 21622811 Eliana Flávia Camporese Sérvulo, Departamento de Engenharia Bioquímica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil the end-product cost. Nevertheless, the high sensitivity of A. terreus to medium impurities impairs the achievement of high IA production yields for different residual feedstocks [8]. For example, the use of molasse [9] or lignocellulosic material [10] requires a pretreatment to remove the impurities, which leads to an increase of production costs [8]. On the other hand, pure carbon sources such as glucose or sucrose may result in greater costs of the end-product, especially because IA production demands high initial concentration of substrate – over 100 g/L for sugars [11]. The use of low cost feedstocks such as granulated sugar or VHP (very high polymerization) sugar, to IA production is proposed on this study. VHP is a not refined sugar produced on sugarcane industrial plants, which contains more than 99% (wt.) of sucrose [12]. It is the most exported sugar in the world, and it is refined to produce different types of sugar, including the granulated one [13]. The strong recommendation for reducing sugar consumption by humans [14] has decreased the demand of that product in food industry over the years in some countries such as Norway, Canada, India and Brazil [15]. This fact has been one of the subjects to the proposal of European Union governments to redirect part of the sugar production for bioethanol industry and to other fermentative processes [16]. The application of easily assimilated carbon sources, such as those containing sucrose substrate, at a biorefinery concept could be a strategy for the improvement of sugar industry. IA, one of the most promising precursors for bio-based polymers, could be included on the sugarcane industry portfolio. Besides the requirement of a low-cost feedstock, the improvement of nutritional factors should also be considered for increasing IA market competitivity [11]. The use of a proper nitrogen source is also of great interest as it is used mainly for cell synthesis. In a production medium, the overestimation of the components initial concentration leads to economic loss either by the decrease in the product yield and the cost associated to the extra supplementation of the medium [17]. This study evaluated IA production with two different carbon sources (granulated sugar or VHP) combined with two different nitrogen sources (NH 4 NO 3 or commercial urea sold as fertilizer). The influence of fungal inoculum, mycelial or spores, on IA production was subsequently determined. Also, the inhibition effect of IA on the metabolism of Aspergillus terreus NRRL 1960 was evaluated. Itaconic acid production by Aspergillus terreus from low-cost carbon and nitrogen sources Juliana Cunha da Cruz, Diogo Simas Bernardes Dias, Aline Machado de Castro, Eliana Flávia Camporese Sérvulo