Abstract

Alginates are polymers used in the food and pharmaceutical industries as stabilizing, thickening, gel or film-forming agents. Food coatings formed from alginate have shown to have excellent properties such as flexibility and resistance to tearing. These polysaccharides are extracted from natural brown algae, but they can also be produced by a bio-process. One strategy to produce alginates is through the manipulation of the culture conditions during fermentation using Azotobacter vinelandii. This work proposes the development of a PI control strategy to improve the production of alginate from Azotobacter vinelandii in a laboratory bio-reactor scale.