Cellulac, the industrial biochemicals company has announced it has carried out the world’s first industrial level continuous production of lactic acid from deproteinized lactose whey. The ten-day production run concluded this week and delivered optically pure D-lactic acid suitable for conversion to bioplastics.
Whey is considered a high volume wastewater obtained as a by-product of the cheese production process following the separation of fat and casein from milk. As it has a high chemical oxygen demand it is considered a major pollution problem for the dairy industry. Cellulac is able to take this by-product and convert it into lactic acid which can be used in the production of bioplastics as well as other industrial chemicals.
Gerard Brandon, ceo of cellulac, commented: “We are the first company to achieve continuous production of optically pure lactic acid from deproteinized lactose whey at industrial scale. This is a major breakthrough that we will exploit in our Dundalk plant, Ireland, as we build out our phase 1 production of up to 20,000 tonnes of high specification ingredients, starting in 2015. Our resulting lactic acid can be used for industrial strength and heat resistant bioplastics. The use of such second generation alternative source of sugars, in addition to our continuous runs, leads to significant savings in time, productivity, quality, recoverable additives, and ultimately a lower production cost.
“Our innovative solution not only solves a pollution problem for dairy processors, but creates a major value-added product to the agricultural sector in a market deemed to be reliant on commodity prices which are set to come under further pressure from removal of EU milk quotas next year.”