• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.99-104
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• 1976

Experiments were carried out to establish the effects of acids in neutralization after alkaline treatment of rice straw, with which cellulosic single cell protein can be produced by cellulose utilizing bacteria, Cellulomonas flavigena KIST 321, previously isolated by authors. Following results were obtained. 1. Rice straw as carbon source was pretreated with 10 volumes of 1 normality of NH$_4$OH or NaOH(NaOH/substrate：40％, and then washed with water or neutralized with H$_3$PO$_4$, H$_2$SO$_4$, HCl and CH$_3$COOH. Among the above mentioned methods, neutralization with H$_3$PO$_4$after alkaline treatment was proved to be the most effective on its digestibility and SCP production. Dry cell 12.28g/$\ell$ and 78％ digestibility were obtained. 2. When rice straw was treated with NaOH solution, the result suggested that the productibity of cell-mass was attained on treatment of rice straw with 6％ of NaOH (NaOH/substrate ratio) for 15～24hrs at room temperature. 3. When rice straw was treated with NaOH, a volume of water to substrate is adequate by two or three fold and the amount of NaOH can be economized up to 5％ for the weight of rice straw. 4. The steaming of rice straw at 121$^{\circ}C$ for 30min. in alkaline treatment of rice straw gave the similiar effectiveness to that at room temperature for 15～24hrs. and accelerated the sterilization of the substrate. 5. Finally, the level of inorganic phosphate in a medium was investigated. 11.2g of dry cell was produced at the concentration of 0.2％, phosphate (phosphorous level 0.04％) in medium even though treated rice straw was neutralized with HCI instead of H$_3$PO$_4$, and 12.2g/$\ell$ at the concentration of 0.3％ phosphate (phosphorous 0.04％) on neutralization with H$_2$SO$_4$.