An attempt has been made to convert glucose
into calcium gluconate with the help of Aspergillus niger
through fermentation. The present study focused to
optimise fermentation parameters like glucose
concentration, dose of inoculums, age of inoculums, pH,
agitation, aeration and temperature, for developing an
efficient, cost-effective, eco-friendly protocol for the
production of calcium gluconate, also examine the
reproducibility of optimised protocol and scale-up study
to decide its techno-commercial viability.
The glucose fermentation protocol of various
parameters optimized and subsequently an optimized
protocol for the conversion of glucose into calcium
gluconate was devised. It comprised (a) Optimal
concentration of glucose 15%, (b) Optimal dose of
inoculum 10%, (c) Optimal age of inoculum 24 hour, (d)
Optimal pH 6 +0.2, (e) Optimal rate of agitation at 200
rpm, (f) Optimal rate of aeration 1.0 vvm, and (g)
Optimal temperature 30+1
0C. By using this optimised
protocol its scale up study showed that technocommercial viability was feasible and it can be
commercialized without any problems with desire
quality product as required by pharmaceutical, food,
feed, poultry, and aquaculture industries due to its bioavailability. The currently preferred technology for the
production of gluconic acid and its derivatives is with the
aid of Aspergillus niger due to least pollution, less energy
consumption, and higher productivity
Keywords : Calcium Gluconate, Gluconic Acid, Glucose, Fermentation, Aspergillus Niger.