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Repeated batch electrodialysis for lactic acid recovery was investigated using lactic acid solution and fermentation broth. In both cases, lactate fluxes averaged more than 7.0 moles/m2 h, lactate recovery reached more than 99% for all the batch runs, and specific energy consumption per
unit lactate transported was lower than 0.25 kWh/kg-lactate. When electrodialysis wastewater
was used as a fermentation medium, supplemented with 100 g/l glucose, up to 92.4 g/l lactic acid
was produced with a productivity of 0.67 g/l h. In addition, when electrodialysis wastewater was
supplemented with 150 g/l whole-corn flour hydrolyzate and 5 g/l corn steep liquor, 2.5-fold and
1.8-fold increases in lactic acid productivity and maximum cell growth, respectively, were achieved,
as compared with lactic acid fermentation using electrodialysis wastewater supplemented with
glucose only.
[Key words: electrodialysis, lactic acid, Enterococcus faecalis, lactic acid fermentation, electrodialysis wastewater]
Lactic acid has a long history of usage in the food industry as a preservative and acidulant, and now it has wide applications in the fields of food, pharmaceutical, medical,
and chemical industries (13). Lactic acid is generally considered as a fundamental chemical, due to its high reactivity
that stems from having both carboxyl and hydroxyl groups,
by which lactic acid can be converted into several potential
chemicals, such as propylene glycol, acetaldehyde, acrylic
acid, 2,3-pentanedione, propanoic acid, and polylactic acid
(PLA) (4, 5). Recently, demand for lactic acid has been
increasing considerably, due to its new application as the
monomer of PLA that can be used for the production of
biodegradable and compostable plastics (5, 6). In general,
lactic acid can be manufactured by either microbial fermentation or chemical synthesis. The chemical synthesis
produces both D- and L-lactic acids, but microbial fermentation is able to selectively produce an optically active L(+)or D(-)-lactic acid (5, 7).
Fermentation-derived lactic acid can be separated by
several recovery processes, such as calcium precipitation,
solvent extraction, and electrodialysis (2, 5). Among them,
electrodialysis has been found to be potentially useful in the
recovery of lactic acid from fermentation broth (5, 810).
However, the treatment of wastewater, generated after the
electrodialysis operation, may result in an increase in lactic
acid production costs, because this wastewater generally has
105
Membranes
AMX
Strongly basic anion permeable
High mechanical strength (Na-form)
Styrene-divinyl benzene copolymer
2.03.5 W/cm2
450550 kPa
0.140.18 mm
040C
010
CMX
Strongly acidic cation permeable
High mechanical strength (Cl-form)
Styrene-divinyl benzene copolymer
2.03.5 W/cm2
500600 kPa
0.160.20 mm
040C
010
106
J. BIOSCI. BIOENG.,
WEE ET AL.
FIG. 1. Time course of lactic acid concentration in feed and permeate solutions during repeated batch electrodialysis using lactic acid
solution. Symbols: closed circles, lactic acid in feed solution; open circles, lactic acid in permeate solution.
FIG. 2. Time course of lactic acid concentration in feed and permeate solutions during repeated batch electrodialysis using fermentation broth containing lactic acid solution. Symbols: closed circles, lactic acid in feed solution; open circles, lactic acid in permeate solution.
TABLE 2. Performance during repeated batch electrodialysis using lactic acid solution
Batch number
1
2
3
4
5
Average
Lactate flux
(moles/m2 h)
Recovery
(%)
Current efficiency
(%)
Power consumption
(Wh)
5.2
7.4
7.9
7.8
7.4
7.1
97.9
100
100
100
100
99.5
73.4
78.6
80.8
78.9
75.2
78.4
24.2
24.2
25.2
25.8
25.8
25.0
Specific energy
consumption
(kWh/kg-lactate)
0.25
0.23
0.23
0.24
0.25
0.24
107
TABLE 3. Performance during repeated batch electrodialysis using fermentation broth containing lactic acid
Batch number
1
2
3
Average
Lactate flux
(moles/m2 h)
Recovery
(%)
Current efficiency
(%)
Power consumption
(Wh)
6.6
7.8
7.4
7.2
100
100
100
100
70.5
70.0
67.9
69.5
53.7
53.9
53.7
53.8
Lactic acid fermentation using electrodialysis wastewater Electrodialysis wastewater, generated after the
electrodialysis of fermentation broth, might be expected to
have some moieties of nutrient sources that were not utilized during fermentation. Therefore, we attempted to investigate the possibility of using electrodialysis wastewater
as a fermentation medium for subsequent lactic acid fermentations. To evaluate the amounts of nutrient for lactic acid
fermentation in electrodialysis wastewater, batch lactic acid
fermentation was carried out using electrodialysis wastewater, supplemented with 100 g/l glucose. Figure 3 shows
the time course of the cultivation of E. faecalis RKY1 using
a 2.5-l fermentor containing 1 l of the fermentation medium.
Lactic acid concentration in Fig. 3 indicates the lactic acid
produced during fermentation. As shown in Fig. 3, although
the fermentation was completed after 138 h, lactic acid was
produced at up to 92.4 g/l with a productivity of 0.67 g/l h,
and the maximum dry cell weight reached 3.2 g/l after 60 h
of fermentation. Lactic acid productivity and cell growth,
obtained in this experiment, could be achieved by supplementation with about 3 g/l yeast extract to the fermentation
medium containing 100 g/l glucose, which agrees with the
previous results of our study about the influence of yeast extract concentration on lactic acid fermentation by batch culture of E. faecalis RKY1 (19). This means that electrodialysis wastewater should have some nutrient sources available
to E. faecalis RKY1. Therefore, it can be expected that,
once some nutrients are supplemented to electrodialysis
wastewater, fermentation efficiency should be considerably
enhanced.
To enhance fermentation efficiency, electrodialysis wastewater was supplemented with whole-corn flour hydrolyzate
and corn steep liquor. In this experiment, whole-corn flour
Specific energy
consumption
(kWh/kg-lactate)
0.25
0.25
0.26
0.25
108
J. BIOSCI. BIOENG.,
WEE ET AL.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was financially supported by Chonnam National
University in Prof. Ryus sabbatical year of 2002.
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