Green and sustainable succinic acid production from crude glycerol by engineered Yarrowia lipolytica via agricultural residue based in situ fibrous bed bioreactor

In situ fibrous bed bioreactor (isFBB) for efficient succinic acid (SA) production by Yarrowia lipolytica was firstly developed in our former study. In this study, agricultural residues including wheat straw, corn stalk and sugarcane bagasse were investigated for the improvement of isFBB, and sugarcane bagasse was demonstrated to be the best immobilization material. With crude glycerol as the sole carbon source, optimization for isFBB batch fermentation was carried out. Under the optimal conditions of 20 g sugarcane bagasse as immobilization material, 120 g L⁻¹ crude glycerol as carbon source and 4 L min⁻¹ of aeration rate, the resultant SA concentration was 53.6 g L⁻¹ with an average productivity of 1.45 g L⁻¹ h⁻¹ and a SA yield of 0.45 g g⁻¹. By feeding crude glycerol, SA titer up to 209.7 g L⁻¹ was obtained from fed batch fermentation, which was the highest value that ever reported.