Organic Acid Production by Basfia succiniciproducens from Agro-Industrial By-Products

A continuous effort is needed to develop sustainable production methods for industrial platform chemicals. <i>B. succiniciproducens</i>, a natural succinic acid-producer, can metabolize five and six carbon atoms containing sugars in pure form as well as from agro-industrial wastes. In our work, we investigate the conversion of industrial by-products, apple pomace from apple juice production, and whey waste from milk processing to succinic acid and other organic acids (lactic, formic, and acetic acid). We obtained a succinic acid yield of 0.224 g/g total consumed fermentable sugars, lactic acid yield was 0.087 g/g, in turn, formic acid was produced at a 0.034 g/g yield, and acetic acid was obtained at 0.010 g/g total consumed fermentable sugars, using a thermal pretreated apple pomace-based medium. In the case of pretreated whey-based medium formulation, we obtained a succinic acid yield of 0.236 g/g consumed lactose, while formic acid and acetic acid were produced as well (0.09 g/g and 0.101 g/g, respectively). We demonstrate that lactose is a promising carbon source for organic acid production by <i>B. succiniciproducens,</i> while our study is the first to propose the use of a similarly available agro-industrial by-product, apple pomace, for the fermentative production of succinic acid by <i>B. succiniciproducens</i>.