Fermentation of seaweed sugars by Lactobacillus species and the potential of seaweed as a biomass feedstock

It is known that seaweeds differ greatly from land plants in their sugar composition. The current research on the L-lactic acid fermentation process focuses on land plant sugars as a carbon source, with the potential of seaweed sugars being largely ignored. This study examined the feasibility of seaweed biomass as a possible carbon source for the production of l-lactic acid, by comparing the fermentation of seaweed sugars (d-galactose, d-mannitol, l-rhamnose, d-glucuronic acid, and l-fucose) and land plant sugars (d-glucose, d-xylose, d-mannose, and l-arabinose). The experiments were repeated with 2 sugar acids (d-gluconic acid, d-glucaric acid) in order to investigate the effect of the degree of reduction of carbon source on the fermentation yield. This research also examined the effect of bacterial strain on the characteristics of fermentation reactions, by conducting l-lactic acid fermentation with 7 different Lactobacillus species. Taking into account the sugar composition of seaweed and the levels of lactic acid production from each pure sugar, it was possible to predict the lactic acid production yield of various seaweeds and land plants. From comparative analysis of the predicted lactic acid production yield, it was found that seaweeds are already comparable to lignocellulosics at the current stage of technology. If new technologies for the utilization of non-fermentable seaweed sugars are developed, seaweeds show promise as an even more useful biomass feedstock than lignocellulosics.