Transforming residual sidestreams
Motivation
When sugars are being fermented by lactic acid bacteria, lactic acid is being formed. Currently, often sucrose is being used as carbon source for this fermentation process. On the other hand, a lot of biomass side-streams are available, which contain al lot of polymeric sugars, and which are used in applications with a low added value. Therefore, the aim of this project is to investigate if the sugars from the biomass side-streams can be used for the production of lactic acid in a commercially relevant way.
Purpose of the project
The aim of this project is to produce lactic acid based on biomass side-streams making use of mixed bacterial cultures in an economically feasible and sustainable way.
Approach
This project consists of several work packages, with the different partners being responsible for part of the work.
The lectorate Biobased Innovations is involved in workpackage 5, which aims at the liberation of monosugars from one of the biomass side-streams. In order to achieve an optimal yield, several sample pretreatments will be tested and compared. Besides that, the hydrolysis of the polymeric sugars from the biomass side-streams by several commercially available enzyme mixtures, and tailor-made enzyme cocktails will be investigated. The liberated sugars will be analyzed by HPLC to be able to evaluate the efficiency of the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis.
Our partners
- Nature’s Principles
- Recell
- Others
Biobased Innovations
The researchers of the Biobased Innovations lectorate, together with students, conduct practice-oriented research. This research focuses on how we can make responsible and smart use of living nature. In doing so, we investigate the entire chain of biodiscovery.
