Speaker
Description
Increasing demand for dairy products, combined with society's ongoing demand for more sustainable processes, has led to the production of large quantities of whey from cheese-making. Whey is a liquid by-product of the dairy industry that is usually considered a waste product. Although it is a good source of nutrients such as lactose, minerals, and bioactive peptides. It is frequently dumped into the environment and sewers without prior treatment, which poses a real environmental problem. Due to its rich nutrient content, whey is known to increase biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in effluent, exceeding the limits set by national and international standards. Currently, innovative
techniques such as membrane filtration, chromatography (affinity and ion exchange), chemical treatments, and/or a combination of these techniques are used to extract these constituents. The presence of these components in whey makes it suitable for use in innovative, circular biotechnologies. This study presents an original approach to the
valorization of whey as a basic fermentation medium, thanks to its carbon/nitrogen ratio, which is the closest to the ratio of growth and enzyme production by microorganisms. This fermentation process comprises a number of clear steps: selection of the fermentation strain capable of producing the enzymes, fermentation and enzyme production tests, optimization of the fermentation medium or correction of the carbon/nitrogen ratio, and finally, enzyme precipitation.
Keywords: Whey; Valorization; Fermentation; Enzyme; Carbon/nitrogen ratio; Optimization.
