Succinic acid production through biological fermentation led to new pathways in the integration of renewable feedstock from different industries into biosynthesis. In this article, we investigate the population growth dynamics and succinic acid production potential of the recently isolated natural succinic acid producer, Basfia succiniciproducens, using in silico constraint-based metabolic models as well as in vitro experiments. Our work focuses on the influence of different renewable substrates and added yeast extract on fermentation dynamics, and the produced metabolites of the strain cultured in mineral (minimal) medium. According to our experiments, which were carried out as small-scale fermentations and in bioreactor conditions, glucose is the preferred carbon source, while the addition of 1% yeast extract has a significant positive effect on biomass formation. In the case of B. succiniciproducens cultured in minimal salt medium, a production potential as high as 47.09 mM succinic acid was obtained in these conditions. Industrial applications related to this bacterial strain could contribute to new possibilities for the re-use of byproducts by using fermentation processes, leading to high added-value compounds.

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.