(29g) Integrated Fermentation Process with Microbial Consortia for Acetate Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass

This project aims to develop a sustainable and efficient method to produce acetic acid, an important raw material in the industry, from lignocellulosic biomass. Corn stover will be used as the lignocellulosic substrate which is pretreated with the acid or base followed by enzymatic hydrolysis to obtain sugars. The project focuses on optimizing the conditions for biomass hydrolysis in the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis phase, to maximize sugar yield while minimizing the toxicity to microbial consortia. The microbial consortia contain two bacteria: Lactococcus lactis and Clostridium formicoaceticum. L. Lactis converts biomass-derived glucose into lactate, and C. formicoaceticum converts lactate further into acetate. First, the medium with pure glucose was optimized to make sure the co-growth of both bacteria and increase the stability of microbial consortia. Then the carbon source was switched to biomass-derived sugars, and the nitrogen source was switched to corn steep liquor to make the whole process more economical. The project aims to address the challenge of inefficient hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and fermentation conditions of microbial co-culture for efficient production of acetate.