Various environmental factors affecting saccharification from alginate using Stenotrophomonas maltophilia were investigated in flask cultures. The cell concentrations increased from 0.6 to 0.92 optical density (OD) at 660 nm when the agitation rate increased from 15 to 90 rpm. On the other hand, the maximum concentration of sugar was obtained at 3.8 g/l after 4 days of culture at 15 rpm. After 3 days of preculture at 33 degrees C, the sugar concentration peaked at 5.0 g/l after 5 days of culture. When 10 g/l of NaCl was used, the maximum concentration of sugar, 5.3 g/l, was obtained after 5 days of culture. Yeast extract and peptone were the best nitrogen source for effective saccharification. Especially, the sugar concentration was 6.1 g/l after 5 days of culture using a mixture of 1.0 g/l of yeast extract and 1.0 g/l of peptone. Under optimum conditions of culture and media, scale-up for effective saccharification from alginate was carried out in 5 1 flasks. The cell concentration after 2 days of culture was 0.61 OD at 660 nm and showed no further increase after 3 days of culture. The sugar concentrations from alginate were increased with increasing culture time to 7.9 g/l after 9 days of culture. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.