Effects of intermittent addition of cellulase for production of L-lactic acid from wastewater sludge by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation

An attempt was made to create L-lactic acid, a precursor of poly-lactic acid, which is a biodegradable plastic, from wastewater sludge from the paper-manufacturing industry. The sludge contained a high percentage of cellulose and needed to be hydrolyzed to glucose by the action of the cellulase before being treating with lactic acid bacteria. Therefore, a method involving simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) was carried out. The optimum pH of the SSF for production of the lactic acid by the newly isolated lactic acid bacterium with a high selectively of L-lactic acid was found out to be around pH = 5.0, and the optimum temperature to be approximately 40 degrees C. On the basis of the measurement of the cell density changes in the lactic acid bacteria, it was ascertained that the bacterial activity could continue at a high level for a relatively long period of time, and that the L-lactic acid productivity was diminished by the rapid deactivation of the cellulase. With the intermittent addition of cellulase once daily for the sake of compensating for the cellulase deactivation, the L-lactic acid attained a maximum concentration of 16.9 g/L, i.e., a 72.2% yield based on the potential glucose contained in the sludge under optimum pH and temperature conditions.