Development of a continuous l-lysine bioconversion system for cadaverine production

Abstract Cadaverine, a five carbon diamine (1,5-diaminopentane), plays a role as a building block of polyamides and it can be made by fermentation or direct bioconversion. To improve its production by increasing reusability of immobilized enzyme and avoid separation of enzyme in bioconversion, a continuous l -lysine bioconversion process for cadaverine production has been developed. Various divalent cations, alginate concentrations, cell density with alginate and flow rate of feed were examined to maximize the lysine decarboxylase activity of the whole-cell immobilized beads. Under the selected conditions, 123 h of continuous cadaverine production has been performed and 5.5 L of 819 mM cadaverine were produced with 14 mL reactor resulting in 466.5 g of cadaverine. Cadaverine production was possible with small volume reactor maintaining relatively high concentration of substrate.