Mixed food waste as renewable feedstock in succinic acid fermentation

Mixed food waste, which was directly collected from restaurants without pretreatments, was used as a valuable feedstock in succinic acid (SA) fermentation in the present study. Commercial enzymes and crude enzymes produced from Aspergillus awamori and Aspergillus oryzae were separately used in hydrolysis of food waste, and their resultant hydrolysates were evaluated. For hydrolysis using the fungal mixture comprising A. awamori and A. oryzae, a nutrient-complete food waste hydrolysate was generated, which contained 31.9 g L(-1) glucose and 280 mg L(-1) free amino nitrogen. Approximately 80-90 % of the solid food waste was also diminished. In a 2.5 L fermentor, 29.9 g L(-1) SA was produced with an overall yield of 0.224 g g(-1) substrate using food waste hydrolysate and recombinant Escherichia coli. This is comparable to many similar studies using various wastes or by-products as substrates. Results of this study demonstrated the enormous potential of food waste as renewable resource in the production of bio-based chemicals and materials via microbial bioconversion.