Abstract
Pyruvic acid is an important chemical in the carboxylate platform. Obstacles for its implementation are the need for high energy in chemical synthesis and additives in fermentation leading to increased production costs. Here, pyruvic acid generation from direct conversion of lactic acid in fermentation broth by electrolysis method is presented. It was found that lactic acid could be converted to pyruvic acid in the electrolysis cell under alkaline conditions. Using 12.53 g/L lactic acid fermentation broth as anolyte, 7.01 g/L pyruvic acid could be produced and productivity to lactic acid was 57.66% at initial pH 11.74 and 5.0 V applied a voltage in the electrolysis cell. Meanwhile, 0.472 mol hydrogen was produced at the cathode. The electric energy efficiency was 76.18%. Lactic acid fermentation is relatively cheap and can be performed on many kinds of wastes and biomasses. The results suggest that pyruvic acid production from direct electrolysis of lactic acid fermentation broth can be economically feasible.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bernardo MP, Coelho LF, Sass DC, Contiero J (2016) l-(+)-Lactic acid production by Lactobacillus rhamnosus B103 from dairy industry waste. Braz J Microbiol 47(3):640–646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjm.2015.12.001
Bonk F, Bastidas-Oyanedel J-R, Schmidt JE (2015) Converting the organic fraction of solid waste from the city of Abu Dhabi to valuable products via dark fermentation – economic and energy assessment. Waste Manag 40:82–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.03.008
Bonk F, Bastidas-Oyanedel J-R, Yousef AF, Schmidt JE (2017) Exploring the selective lactic acid production from food waste in uncontrolled pH mixed culture fermentations using different reactor configurations. Bioresour Technol 238:416–424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2017.04.057
Colmati F, Tremiliosi-Filho G, Gonzalez ER, Berná A, Herrero E, Feliu JM (2009) Surface structure effects on the electrochemical oxidation of ethanol on platinum single crystal electrodes. Faraday Discuss 140(0):379–397. https://doi.org/10.1039/B802160K
de la Torre I, Ladero M, Santos VE (2018) Production of d-lactic acid by Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. delbrueckii from orange peel waste: techno-economical assessment of nitrogen sources. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 102(24):10511–10521
Fang Y-H, Liu Z-P (2009) Surface phase diagram and oxygen coupling kinetics on flat and stepped Pt surfaces under electrochemical potentials. J Phys Chem C 113(22):9765–9772. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp901091a
Gao C, Ma C, Xu P (2011) Biotechnological routes based on lactic acid production from biomass. Biotechnol Adv 29(6):930–939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2011.07.022
Jacob JAKT (2010) Theoretical studies of potential-dependent and competing mechanisms of the electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction on Pt(111). Angew Chem Int Ed 49(49):9521–9525
Kamzolova SV, Morgunov IG (2016) Biosynthesis of pyruvic acid from glucose by Blastobotrys adeninivorans. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100(17):7689–7697
Kavanagh R, Cao X-M, Lin W-F, Hardacre C, Hu P (2012) Origin of low CO2 selectivity on platinum in the direct ethanol fuel cell. Angew Chem Int Ed 51(7):1572–1575. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201104990
Lomate S, Bonnotte T, Paul S, Dumeignil F, Katryniok B (2013) Synthesis of pyruvic acid by vapour phase catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation of lactic acid. J Mol Catal A-Chem 377:123–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcata.2013.05.006
Maleki N, Eiteman M (2017) Recent progress in the microbial production of pyruvic acid. Ferment 3(1):8
Marti ME, Gurkan T (2015) Selective recovery of pyruvic acid from two and three acid aqueous solutions by reactive extraction. Sep Purif Technol 156:148–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2015.09.067
Shi S, Li J, Blersch DM (2018) Utilization of solid catfish manure waste as carbon and nutrient source for lactic acid production. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 102(11):4765–4772. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-8985-6
Tang J, Wang XC, Hu Y, Zhang Y, Li Y (2017) Effect of pH on lactic acid production from acidogenic fermentation of food waste with different types of inocula. Bioresour Technol 224:544–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.11.111
Tsujino T, Ohigashi S, Sugiyama S, Kawashiro K, Hayashi H (1992) Oxidation of propylene glycol and lactic acid to pyruvic acid in aqueous phase catalyzed by lead-modified palladium-on-carbon and related systems. J Mol Catal 71(1):25–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-5102(92)80005-2
Utrilla J, Vargas-Tah A, Trujillo-Martínez B, Gosset G, Martinez A (2016) Production of d-lactate from sugarcane bagasse and corn stover hydrolysates using metabolic engineered Escherichia coli strains. Bioresour Technol 220:208–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.08.067
Yonehara T, Miyata R (1994) Fermentative production of pyruvate from glucose by Torulopsis glabrata. J Ferment Bioeng 78(2):155–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/0922-338X(94)90255-0
Zhang C, Wang T, Ding Y (2017a) One-step synthesis of pyruvic acid from glycerol oxidation over Pb promoted Pt/activated carbon catalysts. Chinese J Catal 38(5):928–937. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1872-2067(17)62835-3
Zhang C, Wang T, Ding Y (2017b) Oxidative dehydrogenation of lactic acid to pyruvic acid over Pb-Pt bimetallic supported on carbon materials. Appl Catal A-Gen 533:59–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcata.2017.01.010
Funding
This work has been funded by the Hubei Provincial Administration of Education Science and Technology Program (No. B2018061, Q20161608), China.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.
Ethical statement
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic Supplementary Material
ESM 1
(PDF 522 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xixi, Z., Qian, P. & Wang, B. Electrolyzing lactic acid in situ in fermentation broth to produce pyruvic acid in electrolysis cell. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 103, 4045–4052 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-09793-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-09793-0