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Xanthan is a microbial biopolymer with a wide range of industrial applications and it is expected that the demand for this product will significantly increase in the coming decade and for this reason it is important to constantly work on improving all aspects of this biotechnological process. The aim of this research was to examine the kinetics of batch cultivation of Xanthomonas campestris ATCC 13951 using vegetable oil industry wastewaters as a basis for the cultivation medium, in order to produce the biopolymer xanthan. Kinetic modelling is very important for process control, reducing process costs and increasing product quality. By performing xanthan production on a medium with optimized content, the experimental values of content of biomass, carbon source and the desired product were obtained and used to determine the kinetics of biosynthesis. In order to describe biomass multiplication, product formation and carbon source consumption, the logistics, the Luedeking-Piret and modified Luedeking- -Piret equation, respectively, were successfully used. Additionally, using process simulation software (SuperPro Designer®), a process and cost model for a xanthan production facility was developed. The developed model represents the basis for a 21,294.29 and 23,107.97 kg/year xanthan production facility, which uses a vegetable oil industry wastewater-based medium and a semi-synthetic medium. The simulation model of the suggested xanthan production process, developed and based on defined kinetic models, represents an excellent basis for its further improvement and for increasing its efficiency.

The aim of this research was to examine the possibility of using the vegetable oil industry wastewater as the basis of the cultivation media for xanthan production, using Xanthomonas campestris ATCC 13951, in order to reuse the wastewater obtained in one industry as a raw material in another. Furthermore, the aim was to optimize the composition of wastewater based media in terms of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus content. Experiments were carried out in accordance with the Box-Behnken design with three factors on three levels (glucose: 10.00- -30.00 g/L; nitrogen: 0.02-0.20 g/L; phosphorus: 0.0045-0.045 g/L) and three repetitions at the central point. The success of biosynthesis was assessed by analysing broths to determine xanthan yield, cultivation broth apparent viscosity, residual carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus content. Graphical and numerical optimization using response surface methodology was performed to determine the optimal content values of the carbon source, nitrogen, and phosphorus content. The results of graphical optimization suggest that for the defined response interval values, the defined model predicts that the xanthan production is possible when 15.00-16.00 g/L of the carbon source, 0.02-0.09 g/L of nitrogen and 0.01-0.02 g/L of phosphorus are added to the media that as a basis contains vegetable oil industry wastewater.