Patent Application: US-201314415652-A

Abstract:
the present invention pertains to a method for consolidated bio processing of lignocellulosic biomass to l - lactic acid . particularly , the present invention relates to the production of l - lactic acid from low cost non edible feedstock lignocellulosic biomass . more particularly the present invention relates to the process for one step production of l - lactic acid from lignocellulosic biomass using thermophilic bacteria paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 , which is not only capable of hydrolyzing cellulose to glucose but also further fermenting it to l - lactic acid under aerobic conditions , without any growth inhibition in presence of lignin . the present invention provides a process which has less chances of contamination , as the fermentation is carried out at higher temperatures and is economically attractive , as preferably no external enzyme loadings are required .

Description:
accordingly the present invention offers a consolidated bioprocess for the production of l (+)- lactic acid from cellulose rich lignocellulosic biomass using a novel thermophile paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ). this strain was isolated from termite gut collected from csir - iip campus , dehradun , india . the strain was identified as paenibacillus macerans based on its 16s rrna gene sequence ( 1 , 478 bp ), which was aligned with sequences available in the ncbi database using clustalx software , and further named as p . macerans iipsp3 . the phylogenetic tree clearly showed that the isolated strain had more than 90 % homology with the strain p . macerans . the 16s rrna gene sequence has been deposited in the gene bank under the accession no . hm246634 . 1 and an ida deposit has been made to mtcc , institute of microbial technology , chandigarh , india ( mtcc 5569 ). the medium under which the consolidated bioprocessing by paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ) was carried out , consist of 20 g / l of carbon source , 2 g / l yeast extract , 2 g / l ammonium sulphate in phosphate buffered medium with 0 . 2 g / l magnesium chloride and 0 . 025 g / l calcium chloride . this medium was further fortified with 2 g / l mineral solution . this mineral salt solution was composed per liter of 0 . 4 g of na 2 edta , 0 . 34 g of mnso 4 . 4h 2 o , 0 . 40 g of ( nh 4 ) 6 mo 7 o 24 . 4h 2 o , 0 . 8 g feso 4 . 7h 2 o , 0 . 04 g cocl 2 . 6h 2 o , 0 . 02 g nicl 2 . 6h 2 o , 0 . 02 g znso 4 . 7h 2 o . in the present case , the carbon source could be microcrystalline cellulose ( mcc ), sodium salt of carboxymethyl cellulose ( na salt of cmc ), lignocellulosic biomass , waste paper , paper and pulp and paper mill residue etc . alternatively , simple sugars like glucose , xylose and cellobiose could also serve as carbon source . the said biomass used in the present invention was obtained by acid pretreatment of various lignocellulosic sources such as forest residues , herbaceous material , agricultural residues ( bagasse derived from sugarcane , sweet sorghum , corn stover , cassava ), straw derived from rice and wheat , cotton stalks etc . this acid pretreatment at high temperature solubilised most of the hemicellulose thus facilitating the accessibility of cellulose rich fraction to cellulolytic enzymes secreted by paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ). when complex carbon substrates such as lignocellulosic biomass , sodium salt of carboxymethyl cellulose , mcc , waste paper were used for consolidated bioprocessing to lactic acid , the endoglucanase assay in the crude supernatant was performed by measuring the initial rate of hydrolysis of 1 % carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt in the range of linear increase of reducing sugar ( rs ) concentration over time in 50 mm sodium acetate buffer ph 4 . 8 at 50 ° c . hydrolysis was carried out without stirring for 10 minutes followed by termination of reaction using 3 ml of dns reaction . one iu is defined as the moles of glycosidic bonds hydrolysed in one minute during initial hydrolysis . crude extracts were diluted so as to give a linear relationship between enzyme concentration and activity measured . carboxymethyl cellulose ( fluka grade : 21902 ) with an average degree of substitution ( ds ) of 0 . 77 was used as a substrate . the cellobiase or the β - glucosidase activity was measured in the culture supernatant as per the iupac protocol by t . k . ghosh ( 1987 ). the temperature at which the fermentation was carried out is 50 ° c . the initial ph of the medium was in the range of 7 . 2 - 7 . 5 and during the entire course of process , the conditions were aerobic . as the lactic acid production proceeded there was a drop in the ph of the medium . a ph of less than 4 . 8 inhibited the growth of the organism thereby cessing the production of lactic acid . therefore the ph was maintained above 5 . 5 ( using caco 3 ) so as to prevent the inhibition due to lactic acid production and thereby maintaining paenibacillus cells in their growth phase for its continuous production . the said process can run under batch and fed batch conditions . conventional methods like adsorption , electro - dialysis , membrane separation , reactive extraction can be adopted for the recovery and concentration of lactic acid from the fermentation broth . the following examples are given by the way of illustration and therefore should not be construed to limit the scope of the present invention . example 1 : production of l - lactic acid using glucose as sole carbon source seed cultures of paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ) were grown aerobically at 50 ° c . in 100 ml erlenmeyer flask containing 20 ml medium with following composition ( table 1 ). before inoculation of paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ), the said media was autoclaved at 121 ° c . for 15 min , with final ph value of 7 . 2 ± 0 . 3 . the carbon source in the said medium in this experiment was glucose . 2 ml of mid - log aliquot of seed culture was transferred to 100 ml of autoclaved fermentation medium placed in 500 ml capacity erlenmeyer flask , with glucose as a sole carbon source . the lactic acid production was carried out at 50 ° c . & amp ; 120 rpm in innova incubator shaker model no . 4430 , under aerobic conditions . after 4 hours of incubation the ph dropped to 4 . 95 . three different strategies were followed . in one flask no ph was adjusted ( a ), in other flask the ph was maintained above 5 . 0 ( b ) whereas in yet another flask the ph was strictly maintained at 6 . 0 ( c ) using 5 % sterile ca ( oh ) 2 . the fermentation was carried out for 5 days and samples were withdrawn after every 24 hours under aseptic conditions . the samples were centrifuged down at 10 , 000 rpm for 5 min at 4 ° c . and the supernatant was analysed for l - lactic acid production and residual glucose using hplc ( hi - plex - h column : agilent technologies ) as shown in table 2 . the mobile phase was 2 mm sulphuric acid with flow rate being 0 . 7 ml / min and oven temperature being 70 ° c . lactic acid , as a fermentation product , was further reconfirmed via 1d 1 h - nmr and 1d 13 c - nmr spectroscopy . this experiment confirmed that for continuous production of l (+) lactic acid ph maintenance was essential . if the ph was not controlled the produced lactic acid proved detrimental for the growth of the organism and continuous production of lactic acid . example 2 : confirmation of end product as l (+) lactic acid by nmr studies lactic acid , as a fermentation product , was confirmed via 1d 1h - nmr and 1d 13c - nmr spectroscopy . bruker avance iii 500 mhz spectrometer equipped with 5 nm bbo probe head , operating at 125 . 77 mhz and 50 . 13 mhz resonance frequency was used for obtaining 13c and 1h nmr spectra respectively . the conventional 13c nmr was carried out by reverse gated coupling mode using following parameters : ns = 492 , d1 - 5 sec . after neutralization of the fermentation broth with caco 3 l - lactic acid existed in calcium l - lactate form in the broth , thus a 20 % ( w / v ) solution of calcium l - lactate hydrate in d 2 o was used for reference purpose . the 13 c spectra of reference sample ( pure calcium lactate ) showed 3 peaks at 19 . 9 ppm , 68 . 3 ppm , 182 . 4 ppm which correspond to carbons present in functional groups — ch3 , — ch — oh , — coo — respectively . the nmr spectra of fermentation broth sample also showed 3 major peaks at 20 . 15 ppm , 68 . 6 ppm , 182 . 5 ppm . a perfect overlap of major peaks between fermentation broth sample and pure calcium lactate as evident in fig1 , confirmed the production of lactic acid . besides the major peaks some minor peaks in the region 60 . 5 ppm to 110 ppm were also visible in the fermentation broth sample which could be possibly due to the carbon atoms present in the carbohydrate . example 3 : effect of neutralizing agent on l - lactic acid production using glucose as sole source of carbon all the experimental conditions for the seed culture , production and analysis of end products were identical as mentioned in example 1 , except for the incubation time and use of neutralizing agent . two different neutralizing agents were used to control ph of the medium , one being 5 % sterile naoh and other being 5 % sterile ca ( oh ) 2 . the present experiment was restricted to 24 hours only and the l - lactic acid formation is shown in table 3 . as evident from the table 2 , when no ph was controlled , no significant increase in lactic acid production was observed , suggesting the growth cessation of paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ) at lower ph . though 5 % naoh showed a better performance than ca ( oh ) 2 , the selectivity towards targeted product ( data not shown ) was better when ph was maintained using ca ( oh ) 2 . later , it was observed that the glucose consumption and lactic acid formation was better with caco 3 and so ca ( oh ) 2 was further replaced with caco 3 . all the experimental conditions for the seed culture , production and analysis of end products were identical as mentioned in example 1 . however in the present experiment , varying concentrations of glucose were used ranging from 20 g / l to 80 g / l . the ph of 6 . 0 was maintained using 5 % caco 3 . since no substantial increase in l (+) lactic acid production was observed after 48 hours as seen in example 1 , the present experiment was restricted to 72 hours only . table 4 represents the percentage efficiency of the l - lactic acid production based on initial glucose concentration at various time points . as evident from the fig2 , higher concentration of initial glucose was inhibitory for the production of l (+) lactic acid . all the experimental conditions for the seed culture , production and analysis of end products were identical as mentioned in example 1 . various other carbon sources such as xylose , beechwood xylan , micro - crystalline cellulose , sodium salt of carboxymethyl cellulose , sulphonated lignin , cellobiose and acid pre - treated sugarcane bagasse pith were screened for lactic acid production . the pretreated sugarcane bagasse pith was obtained by treatment of sugarcane bagasse pith with 2 % w / w sulfuric acid with a holding time of 90 minutes at 140 ° c . this pretreatment resulted in hydrolysis of hemicellulose component in the form of liquid stream and cellulose and lignin rich biomass . glucose fed flask served as a positive control . the concentration of all the carbon sources tested was 20 g / l . the seed medium was prepared with glucose as sole carbon source . since some of the carbon sources were complex , 3 ml of seed inoculum was transferred to 100 ml of autoclaved fermentation medium placed in 500 ml capacity erlenmeyer flask . the samples were withdrawn after 24 hours and formation of lactic acid was assessed in supernatant centrifuged down at 10 , 000 rpm for 5 min at 4 ° c . using hi - plex h , hplc column , with results shown in table 5 . as evident from the table 5 , the production of l (+) lactic was found to be 1 . 15 mg / ml , 2 . 04 mg / ml , 3 . 64 mg / ml , and 2 . 86 mg / ml using 2 % microcrystalline cellulose , avicel ph 101 , cmc sodium salt and acid pretreated sugarcane bagasse respectively as sole source of the carbon . though no lactic acid production was observed in the flasks containing beechwood xylan and sulfonated lignin as sole carbon source , there was good growth of paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ) suggesting that the organism can also metabolise these complex carbon sources as well . example 6 : production of l (+) lactic acid using cellobiose as substrate all the experimental conditions for the seed culture , production and analysis of end products were identical as mentioned in example 1 . the seed medium was prepared with glucose as sole carbon source . 2 ml of seed inoculum was transferred to 100 ml of autoclaved fermentation medium with 2 % cellobiose as sole source of carbon , placed in 500 ml capacity erlenmeyer flask . the samples were withdrawn aseptically under regular time intervals , maintaining the ph of the medium to 6 . 0 . formation of lactic acid was assessed in supernatant centrifuged down at 10 , 000 rpm for 5 min at 4 ° c . using hi - plex h , hplc column , with results shown in fig3 . there was a continuous increase in the l (+) lactic acid production up to 24 hours of fermentation when 2 % cellobiose was used as a sole source of carbon ( fig2 ). example 7 : production of l - lactic acid using 4 % acid pre - treated sugarcane pith seed cultures of paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ) were grown aerobically at 50 ° c . in a liquid medium composed of 20 g / l glucose , 2 g / l yeast extract , 2 g / l ammonium sulphate in phosphate buffered medium ( ph 7 . 2 ± 0 . 3 ) containing 0 . 2 g / l mgcl 2 and 0 . 025 g / l cacl 2 . this medium was fortified with 2 ml / l of mineral solution containing trace metal namely 0 . 4 g / l na 2 edta , 0 . 34 g / l mnso 4 . 4h 2 o , 0 . 40 g / l ( nh 4 ) 6 mo 7 o 24 . 4h 2 o , 0 . 8 g / l feso 4 . 7h 2 o , 0 . 04 g / l cocl 2 . 6h 2 o , 0 . 02 g / l nicl 2 . 6h 2 o and 0 . 02 g / l znso 4 . 7h 2 o . mid - log aliquot of seed culture was inoculated ( 5 %) to medium of similar composition except for the carbon source . the carbon source was 4 % acid pretreated sugarcane pith ( glucan : 57 %; lignin : 36 % and others : 7 %). the pretreated sugarcane bagasse pith was obtained by treatment of sugarcane bagasse pith with 4 % w / w sulfuric acid with a holding time of 90 minutes at 140 ° c . this pretreatment resulted in hydrolysis of hemicellulose component in the form of liquid stream and cellulose and lignin rich biomass . lignin of the pre - treated bagasse was determined gravimetrically after hydrolyzing cellulose and hemicellulose fractions with sulphuric acid using nrel laboratory analytical procedure . sugars were analysed in the supernatant ( nrel standard analytical procedure # 003 ) by high performance liquid chromatography using h - plex h column from agilent technologies . unlike the glucose , which is a simpler carbon source , the ph drop started after 8 th hour . the ph was maintained above 5 . 8 using 5 % caco 3 samples were withdrawn after regular intervals and were subjected to hplc analysis for lactic acid production . the result of the l - lactic acid produced from acid pretreated sugarcane bagasse has been shown in table 6 , wherein appreciable concentration of cellobiose and glucose was also detected . as evident from table ( 6 ) above , a gradual drop in lactic acid concentration was observed after 14 hours , which may be possibly due to adsorption onto bagasse particles . the extraction and concentration of lactic acid can be initiated before its adsorption onto bagasse particles by extractive fermentation , a known process in state of art ( a . srivastava et al , biotechnol . bioengg , 1992 ; 39 ( 6 ): 607 - 613 ). example 8 : production of l - lactic acid using 2 % acid pre - treated sugarcane pith seed cultures of paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ) were grown aerobically at 50 ° c . in a liquid medium composed of 20 g / l glucose , 2 g / l yeast extract , 2 g / l ammonium sulphate in phosphate buffered medium ( ph 7 . 2 ± 0 . 3 ) containing 0 . 2 g / l mgcl 2 and 0 . 025 g / l cacl 2 . this medium was fortified with 2 ml / l of mineral solution containing trace metal namely 0 . 4 g / l na 2 edta , 0 . 34 g / l mnso 4 . 4h 2 o , 0 . 40 g / l ( nh 4 ) 6 mo 7 o 24 . 4h 2 o , 0 . 8 g / l feso 4 . 7h 2 o , 0 . 04 g / l cocl 2 . 6h 2 o , 0 . 02 g / l nicl 2 . 6h 2 o and 0 . 02 g / l znso 4 . 7h 2 o . mid - log aliquot of seed culture was inoculated , ( 10 %) to medium of similar composition except for the carbon source . the carbon source was 2 % sugarcane pith ( biomass composition being glucan : 42 %; lignin : 50 % and others : 8 %). the pretreated sugarcane bagasse pith was obtained by treatment of sugarcane bagasse pith with 2 % w / w sulfuric acid with a holding time of 90 minutes at 140 ° c . this pretreatment resulted in hydrolysis of hemicellulose component in the form of liquid stream and cellulose and lignin rich biomass . the composition of the cellulose rich biomass obtained after 4 % sulphuric acid pretreatment was determined using nrel laboratory analytical procedure # 003 . sugars were analysed in the supernatant by hplc using h - plex h column from agilent technologies . table 7 represents glucose and l - lactic acid produced at different time points from 2 % acid pre - treated bagasse . fig4 represents the course of formation of l (+) lactic acid when 2 % acid pretreated sugarcane bagasse was used as sole source of carbon , before its entrapment in the bagasse particles . at the end of 24 hours 1 . 97 mg / ml of l (+) lactic acid was formed with 2 % acid pretreated sugar cane bagasse . unlike the glucose , which is a simpler carbon source , the ph drop started after 8 th hour . the ph was maintained above 5 . 8 using 5 % caco 3 . samples were withdrawn after regular intervals and were subjected to hplc analysis for lactic acid production . no cellobiose was detected as evident from table 7 . in this experiment also as in example 5 , a significant drop in lactic acid concentration was observed after 24 hours , which may be possibly due to adsorption onto bagasse particles . however the extractive fermentation process can be followed to prevent losses of lactic acid onto bagasse . example 9 : effect of naoh and caco 3 on lactic acid productivity from 2 % acid pretreated bagasse all the conditions were same as in example 6 , but only to speed up the lactic acid production , 0 . 05 % glucose was added in the main fermentation flask . the ph was maintained at 6 . 0 using two different neutralizing agents namely naoh and caco 3 ( concentration : 5 %) and their effect was monitored for lactic acid productivity . the ph drop started from 4 th hour onwards with detectable cmc &# 39 ; ase activity of paenibacillus macerans iipsp3 ( mtcc 5569 ). table 8 shows the effect of two different neutralising agents on l - lactic acid productivity and the cmc &# 39 ; ase activity observed at different time points . at the end of 6 hours , when the ph was maintained with naoh , a maximum of 3 . 64 mg / ml of l (+) lactic acid was produced with 28 . 27 unit cmc &# 39 ; ase activity in the fermentation broth . similarly when the ph was maintained with caco 3 , a maximum of 3 . 27 mg / ml of l (+) lactic acid was produced with 34 . 99 unit cmc &# 39 ; ase activity in the fermentation broth . the endoglucanase assay was carried out by incubating the culture supernatant of appropriate dilution with 1 ml of 1 % sodium salt of carboxymethyl cellulose ( fluka grade - 21902 ) dissolved in 50 mm acetate buffer ( ph - 4 . 8 ) at 50 ° c . for 10 min and terminating the assay with 3 ml dns reagent . colour development was done by boiling the reaction mixture for 5 minutes and readings were taken at 540 nm . appropriate glucose standards were taken along with the substrate , reagent and enzyme blanks . cmc &# 39 ; ase activity may be defined as quantity of enzyme required to liberate 1 μmole of glucose / min under standard conditions . a maximum of 35 . 18 units of cmc &# 39 ; ase activity was observed in the supernatant after 8 hours of fermentation ( table 8 ). no cellobiase / β glucosidase activity was detected in the supernatant suggesting that this specific enzyme may be membrane / cell bound or intracellular in nature . the same samples were subjected to hplc analysis for lactic acid production . 1 . since this invention claims consolidated bio - processing of lignocellulosic biomass to l - lactic acid , no extra capital investment needs to be done as required in traditional methods such as separate hydrolysis and fermentation ( shf ). the utility cost is also highly reduced in cbp process . 2 . up - scaling of the process is easier as the process does not require stringent conditions of anaerobicity . 3 . as there is no or minimal requirement of enzyme from external sources , the operating cost of the process was reduced further . 4 . optically pure l (+) form of lactic acid is formed without any by - product contamination making downstream processing easier and cheaper . 1 . hang ( 1990 ): direct fermentation of corn to l (+)- lactic acid by rhizopus oryzae . u . s . pat . no . 4 , 963 , 486 . 2 . s - p tsai , s . h . moon and r . coleman ( 1995 ): fermentation and recovery process for lactic acid production . u . s . pat . no . 5 , 464 , 760 . 3 . ohara h , and y . masahito ( 1996 ): method of producing l - lactic acid with high optical purity using bacillus strains . european patent , ep0770684a2 4 . k . hofvendahl and b . hahn - 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