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、医疗和散装化学品。LA可以从化石油中生产，但只有发酵生产才能产生非常理想的可生物降解的纯乳酸异构体L(-)或D(+)。近年来，由于用于生产聚乳酸，对可生物降解的纯乳酸的需求有所增加；一种可生物降解的生物相容性替代品，可替代化石材料，广泛应用于交通、包装、皮革、电子设备、纺织、家居、工业用具和医疗应用。生土豆是英国浪费最多的食物(WRAP，UK 2020a)，而土豆加工业生产总量的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(马铃薯商业2020)。石膏的形成也是一个问题，因为它的价值较低，处置成本很高，而且不环保。LA生产的提纯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%的商业乳酸来自食品原料，我们的创新使用英国废土豆作为基质，避免了养活世界超过80亿人口和使用食品原料生产大量化学品之间的不道德冲突。我们还将研究其他各种用于控制pH的化合物和一些降低下游成本的创新技术。[S]董事会在过去3年里开发了一种突破性的高温生物工艺，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丰富了动物饲料，从而避免了将食品不道德地用于化工生产。这项开创性的创新是低资本和运营成本(资本支出和运营成本)，能够在商业化后为英国创造更多就业机会并为英国经济增加外汇。S董事会可以获得L-LA高产嗜热菌，在这项可行性研究中，将把英国工业废料马铃薯转化为L-LA，其上下游技术更环保，旨在降低环保循环经济中提取和净化的成本，生产各种联产产品，回收水和能源。这一创新将在英国创造额外的就业机会和外汇，同时也解决了废物完全商业化后的环境问题。

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.