Abstract
Bacterial exopolysaccharides (EPS) are extracellular polymer-based substances recently defined as potential plant biostimulants, as they can increase nutrient uptake, water retention, and resistance to abiotic stress. As sugar-based substances, the bacteria producing them need to grow in a sugar-rich substrate. Hence, some agri-food by-products could be used as suitable carbon sources for EPS production as a cost-effective and more sustainable alternative to conventional substrates. Thus, this study aimed to produce EPS from specific bacterial strains through solid-state fermentation (SSF) using agri-food waste as a low-cost substrate. Six residues and five bacterial strains were tested in a lab-scale SSF system. From the assessed substrate-strain combinations, Burkholderia cepacia with ginger juice waste (GJW) resulted in the most promising considering several process parameters (EPS production, cumulative oxygen consumption, biomass growth, reducing sugars consumption). Also, dynamic monitoring of the system allowed for establishing 5 days as a suitable fermentation time. Then, using response surface methodology (Box-Behnken design), the process was optimised based on airflow rate (AF), inoculum size (IS), and micronutrient concentration (MN). In this stage, the best conditions found were at 0.049 (± 0.014) L h(-1) per gram of dry matter (DM) for AF, 8.4 (± 0.9) E + 09 CFU g(-1) DM for IS, and 0.07 (± 0.01) mL g(-1) DM for MN, reaching up to 71.1 (± 3.2) mg crude EPS g(-1) DM. Results show the potential of this approach to provide a new perspective on the value chain for the agri-food industry by introducing it to a circular economy framework.