MONITORING OF BIOMASS IN SOLID-STATE FERMENTATION USING LIGHT REFLECTANCE

The nature of growth of filamentous fungi on solid substrates renders the estimation of biomass during the course of solid state fermentatio n difficult. The changing colour of the substrate during the growth of the microorganism can be quantified by light reflectance measurements . The experiments reported in the present paper indicate the potential of using this method for monitoring biomass in the presence of solid substrates.