Abstract
Lactic acid, a biologically derived compound, exists ubiquitously in nature. Its existence ranges from human being to microorganisms. Having paramount industrial significance, lactic acid should be highly pure, devoid of any contaminants. Hence, development of minimum steps of platform technologies to purify it needs urgent attention. The article proposed a novel and simple process for separation of lactic acid from a potential substrate Zizyphus oenophlia, based on ion exchange chromatography. The process herein involves two steps of purification; firstly a weak anion exchange resin was used to separate lactic acid from other anions present in the broth. This was followed by use of strong cation exchanger which washes out the target molecule (lactic acid) while trapped other cations present in the solution. The selected ion exchangers were Amberlite IRA 96 and Amberlite IR 120. Amberlite IRA 96 retained the lactic acid from the broth while washing away other anions. Maximum binding capacity of the resin was found to 210.46 mg lactic acid/g bead. After the simple two-step purification process, the purity of lactic acid improves up to 99.17 % with a recovery yield of 98.9 %. Upon characterization, formation of only levo rotatory form of lactic acid confirms its easy metabolism by the human system, thus triggering its application towards biomaterial sector.
Highlights
Chemical industries are undergoing a transition in their orientation from conventional chemical production to biotechnological production
To remove the contaminations left after first step of ion exchange, this technique of negative chromatography was adapted, where the contaminants were selectively retained in the column and lactic acid is obtained in the flow-through or in the washing steps
The study illustrated the platform methodology of purification of lactic acid using fermented broth obtained from Zizyphus oenophlia
Summary
Chemical industries are undergoing a transition in their orientation from conventional chemical production to biotechnological production. Lactic acid is one such product which finds its application in multitude sector. It is produced from varied range of carbohydrate-rich renewable resources using fermentation technology (Wee et al 2006; Bishai et al 2013a). It can be metabolized by the human system due to the presence of L-lactate dehydrogenase inside the body which triggers its application in biomaterial sector. The purification of lactic acid from the aqueous fermentation broth remains a problem considering its purity, recovery and cost of purification
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