Scale up of xylitol production from sugarcane bagasse hemicellulosic hydrolysate by Candida guilliermondii FTI 20037

[Display omitted] •Scale up of xylitol production is proposed.•kLa as criterion for the scale up of xylitol biotechnology production.•Fermentation using bench and pilot-scale bioreactors to produce added-value product.•Contribute to the viability of biorefineries from sugarcane bagasse. In this study, volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient (kLa) was selected as a criterion for facilitating the scale up of xylitol production by Candida guilliermondii at the bench and pilot-scale level. A kLa value of 16h−1 was applied in reactors with volumetric capacity of 2.4L, 18L and 125L. Fermentation was successfully scaled-up from the bench to pilot-scale level with all experiments demonstrating a minimum of 60% xylose to xylitol conversion efficiency. Under all evaluated conditions glycerol and ethanol were also produced as by-products of xylose metabolism. Only minor differences were observed in the fermentation profile when reactor volumes ranging from 2.4L to 125L were used for experimentation purposes, reaching, at pilot scale, yield and volumetric productivity of 0.55gg−1 and 0.31gL−1h−1, respectively, with maximum specific growth rate of 0.26h−1. This demonstrates and reinforces the feasibility of using kLa as scale up criterion. The use of this parameter allowed precise reproduction of results obtained at bench bioreactor level to a larger scale; this is extremely crucial and important information considering that the aim of the proposed biotechnological process is to reach the level required for the industrial viability.