Lactic acid from bagasse – The Hindu BusinessLine

Sugar mills deliver mountains of bagasse, which are both used as cattle feed or burnt to crank out electric power.

Scientists from the Office of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay, and the Pune-based Vasantdada Sugar Institute have discovered that it is practical to make lactic acid from bagasse. They discovered that a lactic acid output facility hooked up to a sugar mill can have important economic and environmental gains.

Bagasse is initially pre-dealt with using sodium hydroxide then the dealt with bagasse is hydrolysed with the aid of hydrolytic enzymes. Thereafter, the dissolved fractions are used as uncooked content for bacterial fermentation to deliver lactic acid. Extra calcium carbonate is included to the fermentation broth to lower its acidity and extract lactic acid in the sort of calcium lactate, which is even more purified to deliver 99.nine for every cent lactic acid. The process also provides gypsum as a by-merchandise, which finds software in the cement business, states an posting provided by IIT Bombay.