Recovery of lactic acid from simultaneous saccharification and fermentation media using anion exchange resins

The physicochemical properties (capacity, kinetics and selectivity) of the ion exchange resins Amberlite IRA900, IRA400, IRA96 and IRA67 were determined to evaluate their comparative suitability for lactic acid recovery. Both the kinetics of lactic acid sorption from aqueous solutions and the equilibrium were assessed using mathematical models, which provided a close interpretation of the experimental results. The best resins (Amberlite IRA96 and IRA67) were employed in further fixed-bed operation using aqueous lactic acid solutions as feed. In this set of experiments, parameters such as capacity, regenerant consumption, percentage of lactic acid recovery and product concentration were measured. Amberlite IRA67, a weak base resin, was selected for lactic acid recovery from SSF (simultaneous saccharification and fermentation) broths. Owing to the presence of nutrients and ions other than lactate, a slightly decreased capacity was determined when using SSF media instead aqueous lactic acid solutions, but quantitative lactic acid recoveries at constant capacities were obtained in four sequential load/regeneration cycles.