RT journal article
T1 Enhancing lactic acid production from food waste through cavitation  pretreatment and biocatalyst amendment – A comparative study
A1 Díaz-Domínguez, Encarnación
A1 Khan Khanzada, Aisha
A1 Askarniya, Zahra
A1 Ciesielski, Sławomir
A1 Xu, Xianbao
A1 Boczkaj, Grzegorz
A1 Li, Xiang
A1 Fernández-Morales, Francisco Jesús
A1 Mąkinia, Jacek
A1 García-Morales, José Luis
A2 Tecnologías del Medio Ambiente
K1 Acoustic cavitation
K1 Anaerobic fermentation
K1 Circular economy
K1 Waste valorization
K1 Sustainable development goals
AB Food waste (FW) fermentation into valuable lactic acid (LA) aligns with circular economy goals, but is constrained by low substrate conversion efficiency and mixed product spectrum. This study evaluated the effects of acoustic cavitation pretreatment, biocatalyst (yeast extract) supplementation, and their combination on the targeted LA production. Acoustic cavitation (20 kHz and 450 W/L for 30 min) enhanced FW solubilization by 9.6-fold and increased LA yield to 0.40 g COD/g VSS. With biocatalyst amendment, the hydrolysis phase was improved, and the highest LA yield reached 0.34 g COD/g VSS. When combined, the yield slightly increased to 0.42 g COD/g VSS, exhibiting only a marginal synergistic effect over the individual treatments. The treatments suppressed volatile fatty acid (VFA) formation and promoted LA accumulation. Microbial community analysis revealed an increased abundance of lactic acid bacteria, particularly Schleiferilactobacillus, Lactiplantibacillus, and Levilactobacillus, with concurrent suppression of VFA-producing bacteria, such as Prevotella and Megasphaera. The findings provide new insights into optimizing chiral LA production from complex waste streams and highlight the potential of integrated bioprocessing strategies.
PB Elsevier
SN 2213-3437
YR 2025
FD 2025-11-10
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39299
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39299
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 07-nov-2026