Industrial biochemicals company Cellulac has announced what it claims is the world’s first industrial level continuous production of lactic acid from deproteinized lactose whey.
Cellulac’s cutting edge technology means being able to take by-products such as whey and convert them into lactic acid which can be used in the production of bioplastics as well as other industrial chemicals.
The company claims to have proved this when their 10 day production run concluded with optically pure D(-) Lactic Acid suitable for conversion to bioplastics.
According to Cellulac this major breakthrough will be used at the Dundalk plant in Ireland where 20,000 tonnes of high specific ingredients will build ‘phase 1 production’ in 2015.
Gerard Brandon, CEO of Cellulac said: “We are the first company to achieve continuous production of optically pure lactic acid from deproteinized lactose whey at industrial scale.”
“The use of such 2nd 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.” he added.
Whey is considered a high volume wastewater obtained as a by-product of the cheese production, however it has a high chemical oxygen demand and is considered a major pollution problem for the dairy industry.
However according to the company “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.”
