Monitoring bacterial cellulose growth during fermentation with various carbon sources by applying real-time image processing

Abstract

Nata de coco is a fermented product made from coconut water. Acetobacter xylinum is used in coconut water fermentation to produce very fine cellulose fibers. This study aims to observe the bacterial cellulose (BC) formation with various carbon sources using the Real-Time Image Processing approach. Fermentation is stopped when the BC reaches a certain thickness. A set of tools have been modified to perform fermentation, such as using Raspberry Pi, Arduino sensors, USB Web Camera, and building a BC growth monitoring database that is integrated with PHP. The results showed the highest correlation between time and thickness for glucose, sucrose and mannitol mediums. Cluster analysis showed that glucose had three clusters, while sucrose and mannitol had two groups. The kinetic observations of BC growth on glucose, sucrose, and mannitol mediums follow the Gompertz model equation. The conclusions obtained are that glucose had the fastest adaptation phase, followed by sucrose, and mannitol. Mannitol was referred to as the carbon sources that had the longest BC formation.