Wine vinegar production using a noncommercial 100-litre bubble column reactor equipped with a novel type of dynamic sparger

This paper describes batch and semicontinuous acetic acid fermentations for wine vinegar production carried out with Acetobacter pasteurianus, and an industrial strain using a noncommercial 100-L bubble column reactor equipped with a novel type of gas-liquid dynamic sparger. Results showed acetification rates with this fermentor (i.e., an overall acetic acid productivity of 1. 8 g/L/h and yield of 94%) similar to that of the Frings acetator and higher as compared to others fermentors in current industrial use in Spanish wine vinegar factories, and a linear relationship between overall productivity and kLa with different operating conditions and fermentation scales.