In industrial glutamate fermentation, intermitted feeding glucose with the help of off-line glucose measurement is generally necessary. This kind of feeding strategy could cause large variations in glucose concentration so that it is not favorable for the achievement of efficient and stable glutamate fermentation. Glutamate fermentation is characterized with typical non-growth association behavior, and during glutamate production phase glucose consumption is closely correlated with ammonia consumption. In this study, glucose concentration was controlled at various pre-determined levels by predicting glucose consumption amount and thus its concentration with the aid of on-line monitoring ammonia consumption. When glucose concentration was controlled around a lower level of 5 g/L~10 g/L, the final glutamate concentration could reach a relatively higher level of 80 g/L. In this way, the huge osmotic stress change due to the large glucose concentration variation with the intermitted feeding method could be avoided and the glutamate fermentation performance enhancement be expected.
