Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Aug 2:12:1447278.
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1447278. eCollection 2024.

Lactic acid production by Lactobacillus casei using a sequence of seasonally available fruit wastes as sustainable carbon sources

Stefania Costa #  1 , Daniela Summa #  2 , Matteo Radice  3 , Silvia Vertuani  4 , Stefano Manfredini  4 , Elena Tamburini  2
Affiliations

Lactic acid production by Lactobacillus casei using a sequence of seasonally available fruit wastes as sustainable carbon sources

Stefania Costa et al. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Lactic acid (LA) production from fossil resources is unsustainable owing to their depletion and environmental concerns. Thus, this study aimed to optimize the production of LA by Lactobacillus casei in a cultured medium containing fruit wastes (FWs) from agro-industries and second cheese whey (SCW) from dairy production, supplemented with maize steep liquor (MSL, 10% v/v) as the nitrogen source. Methods: The FWs were selected based on seasonal availability [early summer (early ripening peach), full summer (melon), late summer (pear), and early autumn (apple)] and SCW as annual waste. Small-scale preliminary tests as well as controlled fermenter experiments were performed to demonstrate the potential of using various food wastes as substrates for LA fermentation, except for apple pomace. Results and discussion: A 5-cycle repeated batch fermentation was conducted to optimize waste utilization and production, resulting in a total of 180.56 g/L of LA with a volumetric productivity of 0.88 g/L∙h. Subsequently, mechanical filtration and enzymatic hydrolysis were attempted. The total amount of LA produced in the 5-cycle repeated batch process was 397.1 g/L over 288 h, achieving a volumetric productivity of 1.32 g/L∙h. These findings suggest a promising biorefinery process for low-cost LA production from agri-food wastes.

Keywords: biorefinery; fermentation; fruit waste; lactic acid; second cheese whey.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
- Experimental scheme of the sequential repeated batch fermentation process based on seasonally available FWs, including SCW as an annual available waste and MSL as the nitrogen source (FB, fermentation broth).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Pie charts of the sugar compositions (on a wet basis) of the substrates used in this study: (A) SCW; (B) peach pomace; (C) melon pomace; (D) pear pomace; (E) apple pomace. The green slices correspond to the initial LA concentrations due to spontaneous fermentation.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Pie charts of MSL compositions (on a wet basis).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Single substrate LA fermentation by Lactobacillus casei with (A) SCW, (B) peach pomace, (C) melon pomace, (D) apple pomace, and (E) pear pomace as the carbon sources. Concentrations of LA (green line) along with lactose (where present, red line), sucrose (purple line), galactose (where present, yellow line), glucose (orange line), and fructose (blue line) were monitored for 96 h.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
cycle repeated batch fermentation process: first cycle (0–48 h) SCW + MSL (10%); second cycle (48–96 h) SCW 30% + peach pomace 70%; third cycle (96–144 h) SCW 30% + melon pomace; fourth cycle (144–192 h) SCW 30% + 70% pear pomace; fifth cycle (192–240 h) SCW 30% + 70% apple pomace. LA production (green line) along with lactose (red line), sucrose (purple line), fructose (blue line), and glucose (orange line) depletions were monitored.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Single-substrate LA fermentation by L. casei with filtered apple pomace as the carbon source. Concentrations of LA (green line) along with sucrose (purple line), glucose (orange line), and fructose (blue line) were monitored for 96 h.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Single-substrate LA fermentation by L. casei with hydrolyzed apple pomace as the carbon source. Concentrations of LA (green line) along with sucrose (purple line), glucose (orange line), and fructose (blue line) were monitored for 96 h.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abedi E., Hashemi S. M. B. (2020). Lactic acid production–producing microorganisms and substrates sources-state of art. Heliyon 6 (10), e04974. 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04974 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abedin Md M., Chourasia R., Phukon L. C., Sarkar P., Ray R. C., Singh S. P., et al. (2023). Lactic acid bacteria in the functional food industry: biotechnological properties and potential applications. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 0 (0), 1–19. 10.1080/10408398.2023.2227896 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aguirre-Garcia Y. L., Nery-Flores S. D., Campos-Muzquiz L. G., Carolina Flores-Gallegos A., Palomo-Ligas L., Ascacio-Valdés J. A., et al. (2024). Lactic acid fermentation in the food industry and bio-preservation of food. Fermentation 10 (3), 168. 10.3390/fermentation10030168 - DOI
    1. Ahmad A., Banat F., Alsafar H., Hasan S. W. (2024). An overview of biodegradable poly (lactic acid) production from fermentative lactic acid for biomedical and bioplastic applications. Biomass Convers. Biorefinery 14 (3), 3057–3076. 10.1007/s13399-022-02581-3 - DOI
    1. Ahring B. K., Traverso J. J., Murali N., Srinivas K. (2016). Continuous fermentation of clarified corn stover hydrolysate for the production of lactic acid at high yield and productivity. Biochem. Eng. J. 109, 162–169. 10.1016/j.bej.2016.01.012 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources