Glycerol as an additional carbon source for bacterial cellulose synthesis

Bacterial cellulose, the fermentation result of Acetobacter xylinus can be produced \nwhen glycerol was used as an additional carbon source. In this research, bacterial cellulose \nproduced in two different fermentation medium, Hestrin and Scharmm (HS) medium and HS \nmedium with additional MgSO4. Concentration of glycerol that used in this research were 0%; \n5%; 10%; and 15% (v/v). The optimum conditions of bacterial cellulose production on each \nexperiment variations determined by characterization of the mechanical properties, including \nthickness, tensile strength and elongation. Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) \nrevealed the characterization of bacterial cellulose. Results showed that the growth rate of \nbacterial cellulose in HS-MgSO4-glycerol medium was faster than in HS-glycerol medium. \nIncreasing concentrations of glycerol will lower the value of tensile strength and elongation. \nElongation test showed that the elongation bacterial cellulose (BC) with the addition of 4.95% \n(v/v) glycerol in the HS-MgSO4 medium is the highest elongation value. The optimum \nbacterial cellulose production was achieved when 4.95% (v/v) of glycerol added into HSMgSO4 \nmedium with stress at break of 116.885 MPa and 4.214% elongation.