The results of this study show that there is a great potential in utilizing waste water of candied jujube-processing industry for the production of bacterial cellulose. WWCJ can be used as a low cost and abundant raw material which can be easy hydrolyzed to glucose by acid pretreatment.
Hydrolysis at 80◦C for 3h increased the glucose content by 58% compared with that of the original WWCJ. Using Gluconace- tobacter xylinum CGMCC No.2955 and pretreatment of waste jujube juice medium can achieve a higher BC productivity (0.375 g/L/d) in 6 days’ cultivation. The structure studies indicated that the fiber size distribution was 3–14nm in those media with an average diameter being around 5.9 nm. The crystallinity index of BC from pretreatment medium was lower than that of without pretreat- ment medium and BCs from various media had similar chemical binding. Ammonium citrate was a key factor for improving the production of BC in those media and crystallinity index of BC. Thus, utility of WWCJ as feedstock for the production of BC is not only economical but also environment friendly. Further studies on enhancing BC productivity in waste jujube juice system and mate- rials properties analysis will be the next challenge from application aspects.