Lactic acid production from paper sludge by SSF with thermotolerant Rhizopus sp.

Abstract

Background: Rhizopus fungi is suitable for the production of lactic acid, which is the backbone material of polylactic acid used as green plastic from lignocellulosic biomass, since it can grow and ferment in simple medium with various carbon sources such as starch and cellulose. Although paper sludge (PS) contains a lot of cellulosic fibers and in general was incinerated for volume reduction and heat recovery, other efficient utilizations have hardly been developed. In effective production of lactic acid from PS, the research of the extraction of cellulosic fiber from raw PS to obtain effectively fermentable sugars by cellulase and the selection of lactic acid microorganism are necessary. In this study, the PS pretreatment method with NaOH and HCl and the optimization of cellulase reagent were achieved, and also a desirable thermotolerant Rhizopus was selected. Finally, the production of lactic acid from the treated PS at 40 °C by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) with the strain and an optimized cellulase cocktail was investigated.Results: Rhizopus oryzae NBRC 5384 was selected for thermotolerant lactic acid production from Rhizopus library because of its heat tolerance up to 40 °C and high lactic acid production of 80 g/L. The strain can ferment to lactic acid from hexose, pentose, sugar alcohol, disaccharide and starch. The soaking of raw PS in NaOH and HCl was able to reduce effectively inorganic materials and other reagents for repulping, and the content of Al and Ca per PS dry matter was mainly decreased from 32.9 and 30.8 to 14.1 and 1.66 %, respectively. SSF of the treated PS of 50 g/L with optimized cellulase cocktail and 5384 at 40 °C resulted in lactic acid production of 9.33 g/L for 96 h. Conclusion:The thermotolerant Rhizopus fungus was found based on its high performance in lactic acid production at high temperature from not only glucose, but also other various carbon sources including polysaccharides and the secretion of amylases and cellulases. The treatment of raw PS by NaOH and subsequent HCl was able to remove a large amount of inorganic materials with decrease of hydrophobicity. In SSF of the treated PS with the strain and the optimized cellulase cocktail, lactic acid was able to be produced. However, the increase of initial PS concentration in SSF led to the decrease of the yield with ethanol production, because of limited aeration due to increase of density. An appropriate oxygen supply to the strain is necessary to improve lactic acid production.

Dynamic Optimization of Lactic Acid Production from Grape Stalk Solid-State Fermentation with Rhizopus oryzae Applying a Variable Temperature Profile

“…Another aspect to consider in LA production is the accumulation of fermentative byproducts, such as ethanol and fumaric acid, since the metabolism of R. oryzae is heterofermentative [1]. Although the produced quantities of fumaric acid and ethanol are much smaller than the produced quantity of LA (which is the primary metabolite of R. oryzae) [29][30][31], these byproducts could potentially influence the low LA production at 35 • C. However, the presence of byproducts in the present study could not be demonstrated, as only LA was quantified, thus suggesting a potential avenue for future investigation. To address this, a spectrophotometric technique for quantifying fumaric acid was proposed in [32], similar to the quantification of LA applied in the present work, which could be implemented in future studies.…”

Removal of wood extractives as pulp (pre-)treatment: a technological review

“…Besides corrosivity, toxicity is another important effect of wood extractives. This must be taken into account for treating the contaminated waste streams of the papermaking process, especially because there is increased focus on biotechnological processes for generating by-products out of waste streams like sludge [101] or fines [102]. Also, for conventional treatment of pulp mill sludge, wood extractives shall be removed by hydrothermal treatment, for example, to enhance anaerobic digestibility [103].…”

Enzymatic and Acidic Hydrolysis of Cull Potatoes for Production of Fermentable Sugars

“…Hence, several researchers are working on enzymatic hydrolysis of the starch substrate to fermentable sugars using different crops like cassava, potatoes, rice, wheat, and corn grains. [ 5–7 ] According to Hua and Yang [ 8 ] in the last decades starch hydrolysis with acid was replaced by enzymes like α‐amylase and glucoamylase which efficiently produced 95% or more glucose yield. Limited research has been conducted to compare the efficacy of acidic and enzymatic hydrolysis of cull potatoes peel.…”