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An improved, simple gas chromatography –flame ionization detection (GC–FID) method was developed for measuring the products of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation and the combined fermentation/separation processes. The analysis time per sample was reduced to less than 10 min compared to those of a conventional GC–FID (more than 20 min). The behavior of the compounds in temperature-programmed gas chromatographic runs was predicted using thermodynamic parameters derived from isothermal runs. The optimum temperature programming condition was achieved when the resolution for each peak met the analytical requirement and the analysis time was shortest. With the exception of acetic acid, the detection limits of the presented method for various products were below 10 mg/L. The repeatability and intermediate precision of the method were less than 10% (relative standard deviation). Validation and quantification results demonstrated that this method is a sensitive, reliable and fast alternative for conventional investigation of the adsorption-coupled ABE fermentation process.

Simultaneous determination of organic acids using ion-exclusion liquid chromatography and ultraviolet detection is described. The chromatographic conditions are optimized when an Aminex HPX-87H column (300 × 7.8 mm) is employed, with a solution of 3 mmol/L sulfuric acid as eluent, a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min and a column temperature of 60°C. Eight organic acids (including orotic acid, α-ketoglutaric acid, citric acid, pyruvic acid, malic acid, succinic acid, lactic acid and acetic acid) and one nucleotide are successfully quantified. The calibration curves for these analytes are linear, with correlation coefficients exceeding 0.999. The average recovery of organic acids is in the range of 97.6% ∼ 103.1%, and the relative standard deviation is in the range of 0.037% ∼ 0.38%. The method is subsequently applied to obtain organic acid profiles of uridine 5'-monophosphate culture broth fermented from orotic acid by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These data demonstrate the quantitative accuracy for nucleotide fermentation mixtures, and suggest that the method may also be applicable to other biological samples.