Lactic Acid and Biosurfactants Production from Residual Cellulose Films

The increasing amounts of residual cellulose films generated as wastes all over the world represent a big scale problem for the meat industry regarding to environmental and economic issues. The use of residual cellulose films as a feedstock of glucose-containing solutions by acid hydrolysis and further fermentation into lactic acid and biosurfactants was evaluated as a method to diminish and revalorize these wastes. Under a treatment consisting in sulfuric acid 6% (v/v); reaction time 2 h; solid liquid ratio 9 g of film/100 mL of acid solution, and temperature 130 °C, 35 g/L of glucose and 49% of solubilized film was obtained. From five lactic acid strains, Lactobacillus plantarum was the most suitable for metabolizing the glucose generated. The process was scaled up under optimized conditions in a 2-L bioreactor, producing 3.4 g/L of biomass, 18 g/L of lactic acid, and 15 units of surface tension reduction of a buffer phosphate solution. Around 50% of the cellulose was degraded by the treatment applied, and the liqueurs generated were useful for an efficient production of lactic acid and biosurfactants using L. plantarum. Lactobacillus bacteria can efficiently utilize glucose from cellulose films hydrolysis without the need of clarification of the liqueurs.