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Lactic acid fermentation within a cascading approach for biowaste treatment

  • Biotechnological products and process engineering
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Abstract

Limited availability of resources and increased amounts of waste coupled with an ever-increasing demand for raw materials are typical characteristics of our times. As such, there is an urgent need to accordingly update waste treatment technology. The aim of this study was to determine whether a separate treatment of the liquid and the solid fraction of biowaste could enhance overall efficiency. Liquid fractions obtained from two different separation procedures were fermented at a pH of 5 and uncontrolled pH conditions for 72 h. The fermentation conditions leading to highest lactic acid productivity and yield were evaluated. The substrates gained by both separation procedures showed efficient lactic acid production up to <25 g L−1. The pH control increased lactic acid concentration by about 27 %. Furthermore, quantitative real-time PCR analyses revealed stronger Lactobacilli growth in these fermentations. As identified via Illumina sequencing Lactobacillus delbrueckii and its closest relatives seemed to drive the fermentation independent of the substrate. These results could help to improve today’s resourcing concept by providing a separate treatment of the liquid and solid biowaste fraction.

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Acknowledgements

We kindly thank Sebastian Waldhuber and Ljubica Begovic for their help in the lab. We also thank Paul Fraiz for improving the English language of the manuscript. This work was financed by the Klima- und Energiefonds (project KR11NE1F00380) in the framework of “Neue Energien 2020” and by the “Nachwuchsförderung” of the Universität Innsbruck. Maraike Probst was partly funded by the doctoral fellowship “Doktoratsstipendium aus der Nachwuchsförderung” and the “Stipendium für österreichische Graduierte” of the Universität Innsbruck.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25d, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Maraike Probst, Thomas Pümpel, Andreas Otto Wagner & Heribert Insam

  2. Department of Statistics, University of Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 15, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Janette Walde

  3. Unit of Environmental Engineering, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 13, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Irene Schneider

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  1. Maraike Probst
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  2. Janette Walde
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  3. Thomas Pümpel
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  4. Andreas Otto Wagner
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  5. Irene Schneider
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  6. Heribert Insam
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Correspondence to Maraike Probst.

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Probst, M., Walde, J., Pümpel, T. et al. Lactic acid fermentation within a cascading approach for biowaste treatment. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 3029–3040 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6414-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6414-7

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