Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a type of widely used biopolymer. The production rate of BC can be developed using the Taguchi method and a jar fermentor. By setting and processing the tests of L18(36) orthogonal arrays, the critical factors affecting the BC production are the initial pH and glucose concentration. The optimal factors of a modified YPD medium are the Gluconacetobacter xylinus ATCC 23768, initial pH = 4 5, YPD medium, acetic acid concentration = 1.5% (v/v), glucose concentration = 5% (w/v) and liquid height = 7.2 cm, and can increase 39.0% of the wet film thickness to 3.92 mm. After the two-stage cultivation, the modified YPD-glucose medium can achieve the maximal pellicle thickness of 5.56 mm. With the modified YPD-molasses medium, the BC production rate is higher than that of the glucose medium. A high-cultured volume fraction can obtain a higher thickness and BC production rate. By introducing the two-stage cultivation strategy, the incubation duration can be shortened from 10 days to less than 8.5 days for BC thickness.
