title: Complex media from processing of agricultural crops for microbial fermentation.
abstract: This mini-review describes the concept of the green biorefinery and lists a number of suitable agricultural by-products, which can be used for production of bioenergy and/or biochemicals. A process, in which one possible agricultural by-product from the green crop drying industry, brown juice, is converted to a basic, universal fermentation medium by lactic acid fermentation, is outlined. The resulting all-round fermentation medium can be used for the production of many useful fermentation products when added a carbohydrate source, which could possibly be another agricultural by-product. Two examples of such products-polylactic acid and L-lysine-are given. A cost calculation shows that this fermentation medium can be produced at a very low cost approximately 1.7 Euro cent/kg, when taking into account that the green crop industry has expenses amounting to 270,000 Euro/year for disposal of the brown juice. A newly built lysine factory in Esbjerg, Denmark, can benefit from this process by buying a low price medium for the fermentation process instead of more expensive traditional fermentation liquids such as corn steep liquor.
authors.affiliation: Biosystems Department, Risoe National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark. mette.hedegaard.thomsen@risoe.dk
authors.forename: Mette Hedegaard
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Thomsen
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000191:economics; D005285:Fermentation; D007218:Industrial Microbiology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media