Enhanced Bioconversion of Ethylene Glycol to Glycolic Acid by a Newly Isolated Burkholderia sp. EG13

Burkholderia sp. EG13 with high ethylene glycol-oxidizing activity was isolated from soil, which could be used for the synthesis of glycolic acid from the oxidation of ethylene glycol. Using the resting cells of Burkholderia sp. EG13 as biocatalysts, the optimum reaction temperature and pH were 30 °C and 6.0, respectively. After 24 h of biotransformation, the yield of glycolic acid from 200 mM ethylene glycol was 98.8 %. Furthermore, an integrated bioprocess for the production of glycolic acid which involved in situ product removal (ISPR) was investigated. Using fed-batch method with ISPR, a total of 793 mM glycolic acid has been accumulated in the reaction mixture after the 4th feed.