The addition of various surfactants to the culture media increases the permeability of cell membranes in bacteria, yeast and filamentous fungi, thereby increasing the secretion of extracellular metabolites. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Span 20 on erythritol production yield and the productivity of erythritol from crude glycerol by Yarowia lipolytica Wratislavia K1 in fed-batch culture. The addition of Span 20 to the culture media with crude glycerol as a carbon source (300 g∙dm^-3) caused about 10% increase in erythritol production, compared to the culture without surfactant. In the presence of Span 20 the yeast produced 166 g∙dm^-3 of erythritol, which corresponded to a productivity of 1.14 g∙dm^-3∙h^-1 and a yield of 0.55 g∙g^-1. The results of our study shown, that Span 20 may be use as a stimulating agent of erythritol production in an industrial scale. Moreover, Span 20 is cheap, non-toxic and well tolerated by organisms.

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