Characterization of Liquid Pineapple Waste as Carbon Source for Production of Succinic Acid

Pineapple cannery produces large amount of solid and liquid waste. The disposal of waste without an appropriate treatment can cause a great environmental pollution. Since pineapple waste contains some valuable components such as glucose, fructose and sucrose, the ability to convert this waste into higher value added product such as succinic acid would be advantageous. Therefore, in this study, liquid pineapple waste was characterized in order to investigate the possibility of succinic acid production via fermentation using liquid pineapple waste as a carbon source. The physical and chemical composition in the liquid pineapple waste such as cation, anion, pH, sugar content and soluble protein were determined. The dominant sugar in the liquid pineapple waste were glucose, fructose and sucrose and the total sugar content was more than 100 g/l. Result from the fermentation process proved that liquid pineapple waste can successfully produce succinic acid with almost the same amount as using glucose as carbon source, with the concentration of 6.26 g/l.