Table 4.

Fatty acid concentrations produced during batch culture fermentations

	Cellulose		FOS			CE			DE
	Mean	SEM	Mean	SEM	P value	Mean	SEM	P value	Mean	SEM	P value
Acetic acid
5	11.89	1.195	39.41	4.810	0.005	16.80	2.253	0.126	19.55	3.386	0.100
10	16.10	1.068	45.95	4.080	0.002	30.35	1.183	0.001	42.10	5.413	0.036
24	17.95	0.101	51.36	4.492	0.002	39.71	2.122	0.009	48.65	2.538	0.007
36	19.48	0.581	53.70	4.762	0.002	45.49	1.929	0.000	57.62	8.973	0.013
48	20.12	0.596	55.88	4.512	0.001	54.11	11.674	0.044	54.32	3.772	0.001
Propanoic acid
5	2.75	0.196	11.06	2.632	0.035	4.53	0.177	0.003	6.06	0.509	0.004
10	3.63	0.228	15.13	3.087	0.021	10.68	1.382	0.007	17.89	2.303	0.004
24	4.49	0.317	17.25	2.970	0.013	15.49	1.852	0.004	20.69	1.984	0.001
36	5.11	0.149	18.26	3.107	0.013	17.80	1.326	0.010	24.39	3.999	0.009
48	5.42	0.287	19.33	3.525	0.017	21.59	5.527	0.043	23.02	2.104	0.001
Butyric acid
5	3.37	0.109	13.09	0.565	0.000	5.43	0.829	0.070	5.09	0.755	0.089
10	4.89	0.236	22.25	2.144	0.001	11.04	1.868	0.031	9.80	1.628	0.041
24	6.65	0.148	26.44	2.867	0.002	16.01	2.090	0.011	12.42	1.467	0.017
36	7.78	0.229	28.67	2.982	0.002	19.33	2.760	0.014	15.10	1.721	0.049
48	8.50	0.195	30.69	3.036	0.002	22.92	0.702	0.000	15.18	1.851	0.023
Total SCFA
5	18.98	1.515	63.92	2.837	0.000	27.84	3.692	0.091	32.62	5.960	0.091
10	26.62	1.500	84.88	1.544	0.000	56.14	3.701	0.002	72.99	10.163	0.011
24	32.76	1.118	98.69	0.873	0.000	75.76	1.271	0.000	88.18	8.139	0.009
36	36.84	1.638	105.56	1.450	0.000	89.46	3.577	0.000	104.72	16.786	0.016
48	39.13	1.366	112.04	2.861	0.000	107.79	17.710	0.018	99.98	6.970	0.001
BCFA
5	0.99	0.347	0.44	0.239	0.260	0.96	0.505	0.967	1.53	1.022	0.645
10	1.93	0.362	1.43	0.659	0.539	3.80	2.699	0.531	2.52	1.381	0.703
24	3.31	0.754	2.98	0.840	0.781	3.64	0.745	0.774	5.05	2.785	0.602
36	4.05	0.737	4.07	0.857	0.988	5.24	0.987	0.389	6.29	2.395	0.424
48	4.65	0.596	5.14	0.765	0.639	7.37	0.951	0.072	6.32	1.464	0.350

A table listing the concentrations of short-chain fatty acids in the effluent of batch culture vessels after incubation with cellulose, FOS, CE and DE after 5, 10, 24. 36 and 48 h. Samples were taken at the various time points, centrifuged, and the SCFA were quantified using a GC-FID. Significant differences in the individual SCFA, total SFCA and total BCFA between cellulose and each treatment (FOS, DE, CE) at each time point was determined using an independent t test. *p < 0.05 (n = 3)