Production of bioprotein from Empty Fruit Bunch using Aspergillus niger for fish feed application

Abstract

Bioproteins is proteins derived from microorganisms by fermentation of agricultural waste products, with low cost carbon sources and high energy sources. This study aims to improve the production of bioprotein for fulfilling fish feed’s industry demand since animal feed industry is suffering from inadequate and high cost availability of conventional ingredient that required higher feeding cost. The usage of microorganism strain, Aspergillus niger (ATCC 16404) as protein source is preferable when grown on agricultural waste due to its high growth rate besides provide an extra benefit as it is cheaper than other sources. Two experimental designs were carried out to enhance production of bioprotein by solid state fermentation utilizing empty fruit bunch as a raw material. A 2-level factorial design was employed where three parameters were studied for their influence on bioprotein production. Hence, substrate concentration and temperature gave the most significant process conditions and positive effects for increasing bioprotein production that produce 0.2632 mg. The optimization using central composite design (CCD) was carried out to evaluate the impact of selected process conditions besides investigate the maximum value and to study the interaction between parameters (substrate concentration and temperature). The optimal process condition for maximum bioprotein production (0.6785 mg) was observed at 33°C with 20% w/w substrate concentration.