2. Materials and methods
2.1. Microorganism, culture media and BSP (biomass support
particle)
C. inophyllum linn oil was obtained from the local farm. The
average molecula weight was determined to be 869 g/mol using the
chemical composition of the oil given in Table 1. R. oryzaeMTCC 1987
culture was used for all the experiments. The fungus strain was
maintained on an agar slant (4% potato dextrose agar and 2% agar).
70 g of Polypeptone, 1.0 g of NaNO3, 1.0 g of KH2PO4 and 0.5 g
MgSO4.7H2O were added to 1 L of distilled water to get the basal
medium. 30 g/l of Olive oil was used as the sole carbon source. The
medium pH was adjusted to 5.6 [12,17,18]. Reticulated polyurethane
foamsof 7mm_7mm_7mmsized cubeswere used with a particle
voidage of more than 97% and a pore size of 20 pores per linear cm.