Mechanism and Effect of Amino Acids on Lactic Acid Production in Acidic Fermentation of Food Waste

Amino acids, particularly the ones that cannot be synthesised during fermentation, are reportedly to be key nutrients for anaerobic fermentation processes, and some of the acids are also intermediate products of anaerobic fermentation of protein-rich waste. To date, particularly, there is a lack of research on the effects of some amino acids, such as cysteine, glycine, aspartic acid, and valine, on lactic production from the fermentation of food waste and also the mechanisms involved in the process. Thus, this study investigated the effects of the four different amino acids on lactic acid production during the acidic anaerobic fermentation of food waste. Firstly, batch experiments on synthetic food waste at different pHs (4.0, 5.0, and 6.0) were executed. The results harvested in this study showed that higher LA concentrations and yields could be obtained at pH 5.0 and pH 6.0, compared with those at pH 4.0. The yield of lactic acid was slightly lower at pH 5.0 than at pH 6.0. Furthermore, caustic consumption at pH 5.0 was much lower. Therefore, we conducted batch experiments with additions of different amino acids (cysteine, glycine, aspartic acid, and valine) under pH 5.0. The additions of the four different amino acids showed different or even opposite influences on LA production. Glycine and aspartic acids presented no noticeable effects on lactic acid production, but cysteine evidently enhanced the lactic acid yield of food waste by 13%. Cysteine addition increased alpha-glucosidase activity and hydrolysis rate and simultaneously enhanced the abundance of Lactobacillus at the acidification stage as well as lactate dehydrogenase, which also all favoured lactic acid production. However, the addition of valine evidently reduced lactic acid yield by 18%, and the results implied that valine seemingly inhibited the conversion of carbohydrate. In addition, the low abundance of Lactobacillus was observed in the tests with valine, which appeared to be detrimental to lactic acid production. Overall, this study provides a novel insight into the regulation of lactic acid production from anaerobic fermentation of food waste by adding amino acids under acidic fermentation conditions.