Valorisation of waste bread for the production of yeast biomass by yarrowia lipolytica bioreactor fermentation

The increase in the wastage of bread, representing 12.5 million tons per year, causes ecological problems, such as the production of methane and CO₂, when that waste bread (WB) is improperly managed. To reduce this ecological footprint, a more sustainable system of WB management must be set up. Based on its chemical composition, WB has a high potential to be used as feedstock for microbial growth and conversion into value-added bio products. The microbial valorisation of WB is a novel biotechnological approach to upgrading a waste into a renewable feedstock for bio-based industry, thus favouring the circular economy concept. Based on this, the aim of this study was to test WB as a feedstock for biomass production by Yarrowia lipolytica, which can be considered as a promising supplement for animal and human dietary products. The enzymatic hydrolysis of WB was primarily optimized for large-scale production in a bioreactor. The biomass production of Y. lipolytica strain K57 on WB hydrolysate-based media in batch bioreactor culture was then investigated. As a result, a very high starch to glucose conversion yield of 97% was obtained throughout optimised hydrolysis. At the end of 47 h of batch culture, a biomass higher than 62 g/L, specific growth rate of 0.37 h⁻¹ and biomass yield of 0.45 g/g were achieved from a WB hydrolysate. Therefore, this study demonstrates that WB hydrolysate has a promising potential to be used as a feedstock for biomass production by Y. lipolytica strain K57 for food and animal diet applications.