Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Waste and Biomass Valorization https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-017-0142-4 ORIGINAL PAPER Improvement of Pectinase Production by Co-culture of Bacillus spp. Using Apple Pomace as a Carbon Source Ceren Kuvvet 1  · Sibel Uzuner 2  · Deniz Cekmecelioglu 1 Received: 21 June 2017 / Accepted: 8 November 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract Increasing interest in using food and agricultural wastes for low cost enzyme production continues in fermentation industry. Bacteria, especially Bacillus subtilis, are known to produce pectinases in synthetic media and media amended with agricul- tural wastes as a carbon source, whereas the potential of co-culturing Bacillus species to produce pectinases has not been fully studied yet. In this study, co-culture of B. subtilis and B. pumilus was optimized for solid load and pH to maximize pectinase production in submerged fermentation using apple pomace as the carbon source. Optimal pectinase activity was achieved as 11.25 IU/mL with 15% apple pomace (solid load), pH 9.0, and 1/4 of culture ratio (B. subtilis/B. pumilus) at 30 °C after 24 h of fermentation period according to the Box-Behnken response surface methodology. Thus, it was concluded that a twofold-increase in pectinase production was achieved by co-culturing of Bacillus spp. compared to our previous monoculture Bacillus study. Graphical Abstract Time (h) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Pectinase activity (U/mL) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Biomass (g/L) 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 time (h) vs Pectinase Activity(U/mL) time (h) vs Biomass (g/L) Apple pomace Air dryer Pretreatment in an autoclave pH Enzyme production Culture ratio Solid load Keywords Apple pomace · Pectinases · Submerged fermentation · Bacillus subtilis · Bacillus pumilus · Mixed culture * Deniz Cekmecelioglu denizc@metu.edu.tr Extended author information available on the last page of the article