The production of high added-value products from lignocellulose is proposed as a suitable alternative to petroleum-based resources in terms of environmental preservation, sustainability, and circular economy. Lactic acid is a versatile building block that can be produced via fermentative routes by several groups of microorganisms, including yeasts and microalgae, which are bacteria recognized to achieve the highest concentrations. Lactic acid, among other substances, can be used as a starting point in the production of poly-lactic acid, which is a biopolymer with many applications due to its resistance, durability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Lactic acid production can be performed from lignocellulosic biomass. However, lactic acid production from lignocellulose faces several hurdles such as carbohydrate hydrolysis to release sugars, the co-utilization of sugar mixtures by the fermenting microorganism, and the presence of degradation compounds released during pretreatment. In this review, a general overview of lactic-acid bacterial fermentation from lignocellulose is provided, starting from the potential substrates and their composition, the different metabolic pathways involved, and the purifi cation steps. The main challenges are discussed and the newest approaches to solve the limitations of the process are proposed.

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Lactic acid is a versatile chemical that can be produced via fermentation of lignocellulosic materials. The heterolactic strain Lactobacillus pentosus CECT 4023 T, that can consume glucose and xylose, was studied to produce lactic acid from steam exploded wheat straw prehydrolysate. The effect of temperature and pH on bacterial growth was analyzed. Besides, the effect of oxygen on lactic acid production was tested and fermentation yields were compared in different scenarios. This strain showed very high tolerance to the inhibitors contained in the wheat straw prehydrolysate. The highest lactic acid yields based on present sugar, around 0.80 g g−1, were obtained from glucose in presence of 25%, 50%, and 75% v v−1 of prehydrolysate in strict anaerobiosis. Lactic fermentation of wheat straw hydrolysate obtained after enzymatic hydrolysis of the prehydrolysate yielded 0.39 g of lactic acid per gram of released sugars, which demonstrated the high potential of L. pentosus to produce lactic acid from hemicellulosic hydrolysates. Results presented herein not only corroborated the ability of L. pentosus to grow using mixtures of sugars, but also demonstrated the suitability of this strain to be applied as an efficient lactic acid producer in a lignocellulosic biorefinery approach. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 35: e2739, 2019