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Chapter

Introductory Chapter: A Brief

Overview on Fermentation and
Challenges for the Next Future
Rosa María Martínez-Espinosa

1. Introduction

Several authors stated that the word ‘fermentation’ comes from the Latin word
fermentare, which means ‘to leaven’, while others confirm that it comes from the
Latin verb fervere, which means ‘to boil’. From these Latin terms, several defini-
tions have been used so far to explain not only the concept of fermentation but
also its applications. Thus, the earliest use of the word ‘fermentation’ mostly
referred to natural metabolic processes driven by wild and unidentified microbes.
Other more recent definitions state that fermentation is a process in which a
substance breaks down into a simpler substance usually due to the metabolic
activity of microorganisms like yeast or bacteria. In the context of physiology and
biochemistry, fermentation processes are usually metabolic pathways producing
modifications in organic molecules thanks to the action of microorganisms and/or
enzymes [1].
In the strict biochemical sense of the term, fermentation involves the action of
anaerobic organisms on organic substrates. However, modern usage extends defini-
tion to the microbiological formation of smaller organic molecules, whether aerobic
or anaerobic [2]. In applied fields like food or beverage production, fermentation
involves any process conducted by microbial activities which brings about a desir-
able change to a foodstuff or beverage. The component products of fermentation
may be isolated from the feedstock and purveyed as pure substances, unlike fer-
mentation of antiquity (e.g. ethanol vs. wine).
From the very beginning, microorganisms were described as the main organisms
able to carry out fermentation, but, in general, fermentation is widely distributed
in nature. From a biological point of view, fermentation is a way of extracting
energy from molecules, and it is one of the common metabolic processes to all
living beings: bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. Thus, fermentation provides ATP
thanks to the degradation of organic nutrients (usually under anoxic conditions). In
animals for instance, fermentation occurs within the gastrointestinal tracts thanks
to microbial flora [1, 3].
Fermentation-based processes have been of great interest for humans since the
antiquity due to their potential applications. The origins of fermentation are diffi-
cult to track down, and it is assumed that the first fermentation process was discov-
ered accidentally when salt was incorporated with food. Few historians have traced
signs of fermentation dating as far back as 7000 BC. At that time, human beings
made fermented foods like beer, wine, leavened bread (made primarily by yeasts)
and cheeses (made by bacteria and moulds) since Neolithic times in West regions.
These societies were soon followed by East Asian regions (6000–1500 BC), where

1
New Advances on Fermentation Processes

Figure 1.
Simple classification of fermentation based on the nature of the process (criteria: processes based on traditional
procedures vs. processes based on technological facilities).

fermented foods, yoghurt and other fermented milk products, pickles, sauerkraut,
vinegar (soured wine), butter and a host of traditional alcoholic beverages were
made following local procedures [4–6].
The aims of using fermentation-based processes have been evolving along time,
due to cultural and social issues or due to technology and engineering facilities.
Consequently, fermentation has been extensively used in all cultures worldwide
to improve food storage for short midterms or to make beverages or local dishes
in which fermented sauces, vegetable meat or fish increase the culinary offer. This
kind of fermentation is commonly known as ‘indigenous fermentation’/‘classical
fermentation’ (it is used to produce foods and beverages using natural microbes
following traditional procedures based on cultural practices) (Figure 1). Through
indigenous fermentation, many products have been standardised and commer-
cialised (ales, natural yeast; cheeses, natural fungi; wines, natural yeast), whilst
many other products are made and commercialised at limited quantities for spe-
cialised markers or even remain uncommercialised (products of indigenous/local
cultures). This is the case of products like kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, etc. [7, 8].
The results of the evolution of fermentation-based process are made possible
through ‘technological fermentations’ (Figure 1), which offers several advantages
in order to upscale processes.

2. Microorganism and enzymes as key tools for fermentation

The nineteenth century was probably one of the periods in which the concept
of fermentation as well as its applications focused the attention of profession-
als from all fields of knowledge. This was mainly due to the French chemist

2
Introductory Chapter: A Brief Overview on Fermentation and Challenges for the Next Future
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89418

Louis Pasteur (mid-nineteenth century) who connected, for the first time, yeast
metabolic activity to fermentation. Since that time and up to the beginning of
the twentieth century, significant number of studies summarised basic descrip-
tions of fermentation processes mainly driven by microorganisms [9–11]. Thus,
eukaryotic and prokaryotic microbes able to carry out anaerobic metabolic
pathways have been considered good targets for fermentation-based processes
so far. During the last four decades, most of the studies focused on fermentation
were related to food or beverage production, descriptions of natural fermenta-
tions, production of marketed compounds at large scale or technologies to carry
out industrial fermentations. Between the descriptions of these natural processes,
it is worthy to highlight the following with potential implications in medicine or
industries:

i. The role of microflora in mammals (including human beings and ruminants)

[3, 12, 13]

ii. The production of highly demanded secondary metabolites through fermen-

tation (antibiotics, pigments, prebiotics, etc.) [14–17]

iii. The production of biomolecules like proteins, amino acids, fatty acids [18],
enzymes, vitamins or surface-active compounds [19]

The interest of the use of microbes at industrial scale in fermentation pro-

cesses was higher at the end of the last century, when some studies reinforced the
exploitation at mid or large scale of ‘conventional’ microbes. Shortly after this
period, several works increased the interest of scientific community on looking
for extremophilic microbes showing ‘rare’ or ‘specific’ metabolic capabilities (even
under anoxia) susceptible of being used in industries (Food, Green Biotechnology,
Biomedicine, etc.). This was the case of the use of hyperthermophilic microorgan-
isms first [20, 21], members of Archaea domain [22] or nonconventional yeast
like Yarrowia lipolytica from which production of oils and fats has been recently
reported [23].
More recently, other fields of knowledge have evolved thanks to the knowledge
of microbial fermentation. Thus, two new areas of research have emerged:

i. The production of biogas, biodiesel, biofuel and their derivatives [24]

ii. The design and development of biosorption and bioremediation processes

(involving microbes or their isolated enzymes) for soils and wastewater treat-
ments [25]

Not only microorganisms but also their enzymes have contributed significantly
to the development of fermentation-based processes. Several processes aim for the
fermentative production of microbial enzymes which are further used at large scale
mainly in biotechnology [26]. As an example, the use of lignocellulose as a rich and
sustainable globally available carbon source to produce bioproducts has only been
possible thanks to the use of cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes produced
by different microorganisms including filamentous fungi, yeasts and bacteria [27,
28]. Enzymes from extremophilic microorganisms reveal as promising candidates
for industrial processes. The reason beyond this potential use is that most of these
enzymes show high catalytic efficiency under some of the extreme conditions used
in several processes like high temperature, high ionic strength, extreme pHs or low
water availability [29].

3
New Advances on Fermentation Processes

3. Optimising fermentation processes: impact of technology on

fermentation

Technology was coupled to fermentation making possible large-scale production

for commercial purposes. Thus, the development of modern engineering, biotech-
nology and related advanced techniques has connected traditional food fermenta-
tions with large-scale production approaches, in which product quality and safety
are guaranteed.
To obtain better integrated functions of microbial cells and enzymes, evolution-
ary engineering combined with other biotechnologies has attracted more attention
in recent years. Classical laboratory evolution has not only been proven effective to
letting more beneficial mutations occur affecting different genes but also has some
inherent limitations such as a long evolutionary period and uncontrolled mutation
frequencies [30].
With the arrival of ‘genomics era’ (genomics, transcriptomics, metagenomics,
metabolomics, proteomics, etc.) and ‘synthetic biology’ approaches, new ways of
exploring fermentation are possible due to the possibility of selecting markers and
improving cellular transformation strategies [31]. Thanks to these molecular biol-
ogy approaches, the production of biomolecules through fermentation at large scale
is more efficient, low time-consuming and low cost [32].
The development of fermentation technology is still being carried out in all
aspects. This is intended to improve the yield and quality of products, reducing the
costs of production and looking for processes environmentally friendly. Increasing
fermentation products can be done by optimising the factors that influence the
process from the aspect of the microbe itself, the environment and the technological
facilities. Among these factors, the following have promoted optimization [33]:

i. Type of feeding of the bioreactor: batch, fed-batch and continuous mode of

operation

ii. Nature of fermentation: one or more than one step; solid vs. liquid

iii. Type of microbial cells: single strain or mixed culture processes

iv. Oxygen availability: aerobic, microaerobic and anaerobic processes

v. Characteristics of inoculation and incubation: ratio of inoculation, agitation

rate (to optimise mixing), and continuous control of pH

Other approaches combine microbes and technology at micro-/nanoscale. This

is the case of strategies based on electrochemistry, which have been reported as
successful approaches, mainly in wastewater and sludge treatments [34].

4. Challenges related to fermentation for the next future

As mentioned before, fermentation sustains many processes in food and bever-

age production at global scale as well as other processes like the production of
marketed biocompounds: antibiotics, hormones, pigments, bioplastics, etc. Despite
the intensive research efforts on fermentation-based processes, which involve vari-
ous scientific areas such as plant/microorganism genetics, biochemistry, biomass
chemistry and process engineering, the progress of the global use of fermenta-
tion has interesting challenges to address in the next future. This is particularly

4
Introductory Chapter: A Brief Overview on Fermentation and Challenges for the Next Future
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89418

significant in the case of bioethanol production as a fuel alternative (it is still rather
slow compared to the fast-growing demand on such biofuels worldwide).
We are now entering the post-genomic age at a time when many genomes from
plants, fungi and microorganisms used in industrial fermentation or microorgan-
isms isolated from food fermentations have already been sequenced. This offers
a new knowledge-based approach to the exploitation of these organisms for fer-
mentation related to different industrial activities, from metabolic engineering of
microorganisms to produce antimicrobials or nutritionals, to the molecular mining
of activities yet unknown, but which could benefit food production as well as the
production of market biocompounds. Besides, the availability of the genomes of
many pathogenic and spoilage bacteria may open new possibilities for the design of
novel antibiotics which target essential functions of these problematic bacteria. The
real challenge of the genomics and proteomic era, as it applies to food systems, is
the harnessing of this wealth of information for improved culture performance and
activities, thereby improving the safety and quality and composition of global food
supply.
Another important challenge involves technology. Some microorganisms of
interest recently described for industrial fermentations require ‘extreme condi-
tions’ for growth like high salt concentration or highly acidic pHs. This is the case
of halophilic or acid thermophilic microbes, respectively. Operating under these
conditions causes corrosion (which affects the half-life of most of the bioreactor
currently available), thus negatively affecting the implementation of these microor-
ganisms at large scale.
Finally, the design of fermentation processes based on circular economy is still a
challenge. Some recent approaches tend to use food wastes as raw materials to design
sustainable processes based on acidogenesis, fermentation, methanogenesis, sol-
ventogenesis, photosynthesis, oleaginous process, bioelectrogenesis, etc., in order to
obtain various products like biofuels, platform chemicals, bioelectricity, biomaterial,
biofertilizers, animal feed, etc. which can be utilised for FW valorisation [35].

Acknowledgements

The author is thankful to MINECO Spain (RTI2018-099860-B-I00) and

University of Alicante (VIGROB-309) for the funding.

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

5
New Advances on Fermentation Processes

Author details

Rosa María Martínez-Espinosa
Department of Agrochemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science,
University of Alicante, Spain

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

6
Introductory Chapter: A Brief Overview on Fermentation and Challenges for the Next Future
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89418

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