Sustainable Cost-Effective Technologies for L-Lactic Acid Production from UK Food Wastes (SCET-LAFOW)

乳酸（LA）是一种天然存在的有机酸，用于食品、饲料、药品、皮革、纺织品、化妆品、医疗和大宗化学品。LA可以由化石油生产，但只有发酵生产才能产生高度期望的可生物降解的纯乳酸异构体L（-）或D（+）。一种可生物降解的生物相容性替代化石基材料，具有广泛的应用范围，从运输，包装，皮革，生马铃薯是英国浪费最多的食物（WRAP，UK 2020 a），而马铃薯加工行业总产量的12-20%被作为废物丢弃，主要用作低质量动物饲料或厌氧消化（Potato Business 2020）。石膏的形成也是一个问题，因为它的价值较低，处理成本高，同时对环境不友好。乳酸生产的纯化和下游技术约占整个生产成本的30-50%，限制了商业化和创收。由于超过86%的商业乳酸是由食品原料生产的，我们的创新使用英国废土豆作为底物，避免了养活世界80多亿人口和使用食品原料生产大宗化学品之间的不道德冲突。我们还将研究用于pH控制的各种其他化合物和一些创新技术，以降低下游成本。Chip\[s\]Board在过去的3年中开发了一种突破性的嗜热生物工艺，将各种英国废物转化为L-乳酸（L-LA），并在实验室和中试规模上富集动物饲料，从而避免了不道德地使用食品进行化学生产。这种突破性的创新是低资本和运营成本（CAPEX & OPEX），能够创造更多的英国就业机会，并在商业化后为英国经济增加外汇。Chip\[s\]Board可以获得高L-LA生产嗜热菌，在这项可行性研究中，将把英国工业废弃土豆转化为L-洛杉矶拥有先进的绿色上游和下游技术，旨在降低环境友好型循环经济中的提取和纯化成本，生产各种其他副产品以及回收水和能源。这一创新将为英国创造额外的就业机会和外汇，同时也解决了完全商业化后废物的环境问题。

Lactic acid (LA) is a naturally occurring organic acid that is used in food, feed, pharmaceuticals, leather, textiles, cosmetics, medical and bulk chemicals. LA can be produced from fossil oil, but only fermentative production can generate the highly desirable biodegradable pure lactic acid isomers of L(-) or D(+).Recently, the demand for biodegradable pure lactic acid has increased, fuelled by its use in the production of polylactic acid (PLA); a biodegradable biocompatible alternative to fossil-based material with wide range of applications from transportation, packaging, leather, electronic devices, textiles, household, industrial appliances, and medical applications.Raw potatoes are the most wasted food in the UK (WRAP, UK 2020a), while 12-20% of the entire production volume from potato processing industries are discarded as waste and mainly used as low-quality animal feed or anaerobic digestion (Potato Business 2020). Gypsum formation is also a problem as it has less value and is costly to dispose of, while not being environmentally friendly. Purification and downstream technologies for LA production is around 30-50% of the entire production costs, limiting commercialisation and revenue generation.As more than 86% of commercial lactic acid are produced from food materials, our innovation uses UK waste potatoes as substrates, avoiding the unethical conflict between feeding the worlds over 8 billion population and using food materials for bulk chemicals production. We will also investigate various other compounds for pH control and some innovative technologies to reduce downstream costs.Chip\[s\]Board has over the past 3 years developed a ground-breaking thermophilic bioprocess to transform various UK wastes into L-lactic acid (L-LA) and enriched animal feed at lab and pilot scale, thereby avoiding the unethical use of foods for chemical production. This ground-breaking innovation is low capital and operational cost (CAPEX & OPEX), with the ability to create more UK jobs and add foreign exchange to the UK economy when commercialised.Chip\[s\]Board has access to a high L-LA producing thermophile, and in this feasibility study will transform UK industrial waste potatoes into L-LA with advanced greener upstream and downstream technologies aimed at reducing costs of extraction and purification in an environmentally friendly circular economy, producing various other co-products and recycling water and energy. This innovation will generate extra UK jobs, and foreign exchange while also solving the environmental problems of waste when fully commercialised.