Lactic acid production from renewable feedstock: fractionation, hydrolysis, and fermentation

In this paper, an integrated fractionation with a switchable ionic liquid (SIL), pulp hydrolysis, and lactic acid fermentation is carried out. For this, SO2‐swithced SIL is used for fractionation of sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) bagasse and giant cane (Arundo donax, AD). SIL is able to extract ≈2/3 of lignin when relatively large wood chips (≈4 mm) are used without any mechanical agitation and just 1 h of treatment time for AD. Furthermore, SIL reuse is successfully demonstrated for four runs. Subsequently, the produced pulps are hydrolyzed within 15 min in a microwave reactor, producing a glucose rich hydrolysates. Finally, these hydrolysates are used as a carbohydrate source for Lactobacillus delbrueckii fermentation, which selectively transform all glucose present into optically pure d‐lactic acid. Hence, the whole chain for lactic acid production from biomass is successfully demonstrated.