Purification of Lactic Acid Produced from Sugarcane Molasses

Abstract

In this work, fermentation process was carried out using sugarcane molasses without pretreatment and Lactobacillus plantarum inoculum. The purification of the fermentation product was conducted by using the hybrid short path evaporation. The system allowed to employ lower temperatures of operation due to the use of vacuum and short residence time was achieved, avoiding the tendency of lactic acid decomposition. For tests were used: feed flow rate of 8 mL/min, stirring of 750 rpm, pressure of 1 kPa and it was varied the evaporator temperature from 30 to 170 °C. The experimental results showed 5 times higher the lactic acid concentration than the initial content in the raw material.