Chestnut Shells as Waste Material for Succinic Acid Production from Actinobacillus succinogenes 130Z

Currently, the full exploitation of waste materials for the production of value-addedcompounds is one of the potential solutions to lower costs and increase the sustainability of industrialprocesses. In this respect, the aim of this work was to evaluate the potential of chestnut shells (CSH)as substrate for the growth of Actinobacillus succinogenes 130Z, a natural producer of succinic acid thatis a precursor of several bulk chemicals with diverse applications, such as bioplastics production.Hydrolysis of ammonia pretreated CSH in citrate buer with the Cellic CTec2 enzyme mix wasoptimized and strain performance was studied in bottle experiments. Data showed co-consumption ofcitrate, glucose and xylose, which resulted in a change of the relative ratio of produced acids, providingan insight into the metabolism of A. succinogenes that was never described to date. Furthermore,high C:N ratios seems to have a favorable impact on succinic acid production by decreasing byproductformation. Finally, yield and volumetric production rate of succinic acid were studied in controlled2 L bioreactors demonstrating the potential use of CSH as renewable raw material.