A continuous effort is needed to develop sustainable production methods for industrial
platform chemicals. B. succiniciproducens, a natural succinic acid-producer, can metabolize
five and six carbon atoms containing sugars in pure form as well as from agro-industrial
wastes. In our work, we investigate the conversion of industrial by-products, apple
pomace from apple juice production, and whey waste from milk processing to succinic
acid and other organic acids (lactic, formic, and acetic acid). We obtained a succinic
acid yield of 0.224 g/g total consumed fermentable sugars, lactic acid yield was 0.087
g/g, in turn, formic acid was produced at a 0.034 g/g yield, and acetic acid was obtained
at 0.010 g/g total consumed fermentable sugars, using a thermal pretreated apple pomace-based
medium. In the case of pretreated whey-based medium formulation, we obtained a succinic
acid yield of 0.236 g/g consumed lactose, while formic acid and acetic acid were produced
as well (0.09 g/g and 0.101 g/g, respectively). We demonstrate that lactose is a promising
carbon source for organic acid production by B. succiniciproducens, while our study
is the first to propose the use of a similarly available agro-industrial by-product,
apple pomace, for the fermentative production of succinic acid by B. succiniciproducens.
