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    From Upstream to Purification : Production of Lactic Acid from the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste
    ([Dordrecht] : Springer Netherlands, 2020) López‑Gómez, José Pablo; Unger, Peter; Schneider, Roland; Venus, Joachim
    The implementation of an efficient and sustainable management of the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (OFMSW) is a topic of intensive discussion in EU countries. Recently, the OFMSW has been investigated as a potential substrate for the production of lactic acid (LA) through fermentation. Nevertheless, none of the reports available in the literature covers all the stages of the conversion process. The present research article is a comprehensive study which includes the upstream, fermentation and downstream for the conversion of OFMSW into LA. Several batches of OFMSW were analysed for the evaluation of sugars released and LA content before the fermentation. Fermentations were performed to study the effect of hydrolysate quality on the LA production using Bacillus coagulans A166. Purification of LA, based on electrodialysis, was carried out after pilot scale fermentation of OFMSW hydrolysates. Results showed that variations in the concentrations of sugars and LA are observed from batch to batch of OFMSW. More specifically, LA can reach high concentrations even before the substrates are hydrolysed, limiting the potential applications of the final product due to low enantiomeric purities. In general, fermentations of the hydrolysate were efficient, with conversion yields of 0.65 g g−1 without the addition of extra nutrients. Downstream is still a challenging stage of the process. A LA recovery of 55% was obtained, with the most significant losses observed during the micro- and nanofiltrations. Overall, a conversion of 10% from OFMSW substrate (dry basis) to LA was achieved.
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    Integration of Solid State and Submerged Fermentations for the Valorization of Organic Municipal Solid Waste
    (Basel : MDPI, 2021) Martău, Gheorghe-Adrian; Unger, Peter; Schneider, Roland; Venus, Joachim; Vodnar, Dan Cristian; López-Gómez, José Pablo
    Solid state fermentation (SsF) is recognized as a suitable process for the production of enzymes using organic residues as substrates. However, only a few studies have integrated an evaluation of the feasibility of applying enzymes produced by SsF into subsequent hydrolyses followed by the production of target compounds, e.g., lactic acid (LA), through submerged-liquid fermentations (SmF). In this study, wheat bran (WB) was used as the substrate for the production of enzymes via SsF by Aspergillus awamori DSM No. 63272. Following optimization, cellulase and glucoamylase activities were 73.63 ± 5.47 FPU/gds and 107.10 ± 2.63 U/gdb after 7 days and 5 days of fermentation, respectively. Enzymes were then used for the hydrolysis of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). During hydrolysis, glucose increased considerably with a final value of 19.77 ± 1.56 g/L. Subsequently, hydrolysates were fermented in SmF by Bacillus coagulans A166 increasing the LA concentration by 15.59 g/L. The data reported in this study provides an example of how SsF and SmF technologies can be combined for the valorization of WB and OFMSW.
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    Upgrading pasta wastes through lactic acid fermentations
    (Amsterdam : Elsevier, 2022) López-Gómez, José Pablo; Unger, Peter; Schneider, Roland; Pierrard, Marie-Aline; Venus, Joachim
    During its production process, every kilogram of pasta manufactured generates about 23 g of pasta wastes (PW). Considering the global pasta production, there are about 376 kilotonnes of PW produced every year. In this work, PW were characterised and used as the substrate in lactic acid (LA) fermentations. Enzymatic hydrolysis of 200 g/L of PW allowed for the liberation of sugars with a yield 0.81 gs/gdryPW. After the screening of several B. coagulans, the strain A559 was selected for experiments at the lab and pilot scales. Two fermentation modes were tested during lab scale experiments namely, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation and sequential hydrolysis and fermentation with the latter showing higher yields. The process was scaled up to 50 L where a LA concentration of 47.67 g/L and yield of 0.67 gLA/gdrydPW were achieved.
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    Biorefinery Concept Employing Bacillus coagulans: LX-Lignin and L-(+)-Lactic Acid from Lignocellulose
    (Basel : MDPI, 2021) Schroedter, Linda; Streffer, Friedrich; Streffer, Katrin; Unger, Peter; Venus, Joachim
    A new biorefinery concept is proposed that integrates the novel LX-Pretreatment with the fermentative production of L-(+)-lactic acid. Lignocellulose was chosen as a substrate that does not compete with the provision of food or feed. Furthermore, it contains lignin, a promising new chemical building material which is the largest renewable source for aromatic compounds. Two substrates were investigated: rye straw (RS) as a residue from agriculture, as well as the fibrous digestate of an anaerobic biogas plant operated with energy corn (DCS). Besides the prior production of biogas from energy corn, chemically exploitable LX-Lignin was produced from both sources, creating a product with a low carbohydrate and ash content (90.3% and 88.2% of acid insoluble lignin). Regarding the cellulose fraction of the biomass, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation experiments were conducted, comparing a separate (SHF), simultaneous (SSF) and prehydrolyzed simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (PSSF) approach. For this purpose, thermophilic B. coagulans 14-300 was utilized, reaching 38.0 g L−1 LA in 32 h SSF from pretreated RS and 18.3 g L−1 LA in 30 h PSSF from pretreated DCS with optical purities of 99%.