Corn Fiber as a Biomass Feedstock for Production of Succinic Acid

Authors

Lisbeth Vallecilla-Yepez, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Divya Ramchandran, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Dianna Long, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Rajib Saha, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Mark R. Wilkins, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

12-2021

Citation

Bioresource Technology Reports 16 (December 2021) 100868.

doi: 10.1016/j.biteb.2021.100868

Comments

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. Used by permission.

Abstract

The selection of an economical carbon source is a fundamental parameter to establish a successful industrial succinic acid (SA) bioprocess. In this work, corn fiber (CF), a renewable and an inexpensive source of carbohydrates, was successfully used for bioproduction of SA. Optimized liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis were used to obtain corn fiber hydrolysate (CFH). Results in batch fermentation with Actinobacillus succinogenes showed that a control solution mimicking CFH produced 28.7 g/L of SA with a yield of 0.67 g SA/g sugars, while fermentation of CFH produced 27.8 g/L of SA with a yield of 0.61 g SA/g sugars. It was found that culture pH was a critical factor affecting SA production. In sodium acetate buffered media, SA was the major end-product with lower levels of acetic acid (AA) and formic acid (FA). When unbuffered media was used, lactic acid (LA) and ethanol were also detected.