Bioresource Technology 75 (2000) 119±126

An economic evaluation of the fermentative production of lactic acid

from wheat ¯our

Christina Akerberg, Guido Zacchi *
Department of Chemical Engineering 1, Lund University, PO Box 124, SE-221 00, Lund, Sweden
Received 19 December 1999; received in revised form 2 March 2000; accepted 13 March 2000

Abstract
A process for the fermentative production of lactic acid from whole-wheat ¯our consisting of starch and bran containing nu-
trients is presented and an economical evaluation of the lactic acid production cost performed. Bottlenecks were identi®ed and
alternative processes were evaluated and compared. The costs of raw material, the sodium hydroxide in the fermentation step, and
the conversion of lactate to lactic acid using electrodialysis were found to contribute considerably to the total production cost.
Performing the fermentation step as a batchwise step was economically better than continuous fermentation. The lactic acid pro-
duction cost can be reduced by lowering the pH and/or by recycling the sodium hydroxide produced by electrodialysis to the fer-
mentor. Using higher wheat ¯our concentrations reduced the lactic acid production cost and numerical optimisation of the process,
with respect to the wheat ¯our concentration, showed that the optimal concentration corresponded to 116 g glucose/l, which resulted
in a production cost of 0.833 US$/kg product. A Monte Carlo simulation of the total production cost for this concentration when the
investment and operational cost and the price of the raw material were varied showed that the probability that the production cost
could be lower than 0.90 or 1.0 US$/kg was 61% or 91%, respectively. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Lactic acid; Economy; Process; Wheat ¯our

1. Introduction Since lactic acid is acidifying, the fermentation step re-

The production of lactic acid has attracted a great
deal of interest due to its potential use as a raw material
in the production of the biodegradable polymer
poly(lactic acid). The world production of lactic acid is
approximately 50,000 tonnes/year (Datta and Tsai,
1997) and the commercial price of lactic acid ranges
from 1.40 US$/kg for 50% to 1.90 US$/kg for 88% food
grade lactic acid (Chem. Mark. Rep., 1999). The fer-
mentative production of lactic acid is interesting due to
the prospect of using cheap polysaccharide raw materi-
als such as starch or cellulose. However, the production
of lactic acid, using this process, su€ers from a number
of drawbacks. The raw material must be exposed to
some form of pre-treatment before fermentation to
produce a suitable fermentation medium. Additionally,
lactic acid fermentation is product inhibited (Goncßalves

et al., 1991; Akerberg et al., 1998) and the production of
lactic acid at high concentrations is thus not favourable.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +46-46-222-82-97; fax: +46-46-222-45-
26.
E-mail address: guido.zacchi@kat.lth.se (G. Zacchi).
quires pH control and the addition of a titrating agent,
e.g. sodium hydroxide, ammonium hydroxide or calci-
um carbonate, resulting in lactate formation. In the re-
conversion of lactate to lactic acid, undesired by-prod-
ucts may be produced, e.g. calcium sulphate (Datta
et al., 1995). At high temperatures and high concentra-
tions, lactic acid is polymerised (Mellan, 1977; Cockrem
and Johnson, 1993), which complicates the recovery of
the lactic acid by conventional techniques such as
evaporation. In order to develop an economically
competitive process with a low degree of by-product
formation, the optimal operating conditions must be
identi®ed for all process steps. An economical evalua-
tion of the process can be used to identify the bottle-
necks and attention can then be focused on costly parts
of the process, which must be improved.
Earlier economical studies of the fermentative pro-
duction of lactic acid have resulted in a range of pro-
duction costs of the ®nal product. Most of these studies
have only considered parts of the process, for example,
the upstream processing (Vick Roy, 1983; Timmer and
Kromkamp, 1994; Kaufman et al., 1995) or the down-
stream processing (Kramer and Al-Samadi, 1995;

0960-8524/00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 0 - 8 5 2 4 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 5 7 - 2
120 C. AÊ kerberg, G. Zacchi / Bioresource Technology 75 (2000) 119±126
Tejayadi and Cheryan, 1995), and in some investigations,
the ®nal product consisted mainly of lactate rather than
lactic acid (Vick Roy, 1983; Millis, 1993; Timmer and
Kromkamp, 1994). In these studies, the lactic acid pro-
duction cost ranged from 0.10 to 2.00 US$/kg depending
on how much of the process was considered and the
quality of the ®nal product. A few complete processes
have been suggested where lactic acid, at concentrations
of 50% (Cable and Sitnai, 1971) and 82% (Datta et al.,
1995), could be produced at a cost of 0.26 AU$/kg and
0.55 US$/kg, respectively. For comparison, it can be
mentioned that the synthetic production of lactic acid
costs between 1.30 and 1.40 US$/kg (Millis, 1993).
In the present study, the production cost of 70% lactic
acid from whole-wheat ¯our was investigated for a
process assumed to consist of the following process
steps. The starch in the ¯our is enzymatically hydrolysed
to form glucose in two steps: liquefaction and saccha-
ri®cation. The glucose is converted to lactic acid in the
fermentation step, using components from the wheat
¯our as nutrients. The ¯our and bacteria are removed by
centrifugation and the ¯our proteins as well as the en-
zymes are removed by ultra®ltration after fermentation.
The fermentation step is performed at a controlled pH,
producing mainly lactate. Using water-splitting electro-
dialysis, the lactate is converted to lactic acid, and so-
dium hydroxide is produced as a by-product. The lactic
acid is concentrated by evaporation below atmospheric
pressure.
The lactic acid production cost was evaluated using

kinetic models for the sacchari®cation (Akerberg et al.,

2000) and fermentation (Akerberg et al., 1998) steps
Fig. 1. Schematic ¯owsheet for Process 1.
developed earlier and using data from other experi-

mental studies performed previously (Akerberg and
Zacchi, 1999). The bottlenecks were identi®ed and dif-
ferent process alternatives were evaluated in order to
®nd the optimal operating conditions for the whole
process. Examples of such process alternatives are: the
recovery of wheat ¯our as fodder, integrating the sac-
chari®cation and fermentation steps, recovery of sodium
hydroxide from the electrodialysis step, and fermenta-
tion at a lower pH.
2. Methods
2.1. The process (Process 1)
In the basic process, (Fig. 1, Process 1), no process
steps are integrated and the two hydrolysis steps, the
liquefaction and the sacchari®cation, as well as the fer-
mentation step are performed as batchwise processes.
The di€erent process steps and assumptions made are
presented below.
2.1.1. Raw material
Wheat consisting of 65% starch, is ground to ¯our
and mixed with water to a concentration corresponding
to 50±180 g glucose/l after total hydrolysis of the starch.
2.1.2. Liquefaction
In this ®rst hydrolysis step, the starch in the ¯our is
enzymatically degraded to oligosaccharides at a high
temperature, 90°C, using the commercial thermostable
 C. AÊ kerberg, G. Zacchi / Bioresource Technology 75 (2000) 119±126
a-amylase, Termamyl 120L (Novo Nordisk, Bagsvñrd,
Denmark) with an enzyme activity of 120 KNU/g,
(Novo Nordisk product sheet, 1990) at a concentration
of 200 ll/kg wheat ¯our. The step was assumed to be
performed batchwise and thus, a residence tank was
required. The recommended reaction time for liquefac-
tion is 30±60 min. (Novo Nordisk product sheet, 1990).
Therefore, a residence time of 45 min. was assumed in
the present study and from this value, the working
volume, which was assumed to be 80% of the reactor
tank volume, was calculated. The residence tank was
assumed to be 20% greater than the reactor tank. The
power consumption for agitation was calculated using
power correlations and scale-up conditions (Geankoplis,
1993) assuming that the agitator was a ¯at six-blade
turbine, and that the agitation speed should be scaled-up
from a speed of 300 rpm in a 1 l fermentor.
2.1.3. Sacchari®cation
In the second hydrolysis step, the oligosaccharides
produced in the liquefaction step are further hydrolysed
to produce glucose using a commercial enzyme mixture
(SAN Super 240L, Novo Nordisk) consisting of an a-
amylase, amyloglucosidase and a protease. The con-
centration of the enzyme was assumed to be 7 ml/kg
starch. As in the liquefaction step, it was assumed that
this step was performed batchwise, thus requiring a
residence tank. The time required for complete conver-
sion of oligosaccharides to glucose was determined by
simulation assuming batchwise operation and using a
kinetic model for the sacchari®cation step developed

earlier (Akerberg et al., 2000). It was assumed that the
pH was 5 and the temperature 55°C in the sacchari®-
cation step since these are optimal conditions for sac-
chari®cation (Novo Nordisk product sheet, 1991). From
these calculations, the working volume, which was as-
sumed to be 80% of the reactor volume, was calculated.
The residence tank volume was assumed to be 20%
greater than the fermentor volume. The power require-
ment and scale-up of the agitator were calculated as for
the liquefaction step.
2.1.4. Fermentation
In the fermentation step, the glucose produced in the
sacchari®cation step is converted to lactic acid using
Lactococcus lactis ssp lactis ATCC 19435 utilising
components from the wheat ¯our as nutrients. The
working volume, which was assumed to be 80% of the
fermentor volume, was determined by simulation as-
suming fermentation to be performed batchwise using a

kinetic model developed previously (Akerberg et al.,
1998) and considering the extra time required for ®lling
and emptying the fermentor. In Process 1, fermentation
was assumed to be performed at pH 6 and 30°C since
these are optimal conditions for Lactococcus lactis

(Akerberg et al., 1998) and as a batchwise process. The
121
cost of a residence tank 20% larger than the fermentor,
and the power requirement for the agitator as for
the liquefaction step were included in the economic
evaluation.
2.1.5. Inoculum fermentation
When batchwise fermentation was considered, an
extra process step for inoculum production was included
in the process. It was assumed that the fermentation
medium for inoculum preparation was totally hydroly-
sed wheat ¯our and that the inoculum was produced to
give an initial cell mass of 0.02 g/l in the fermentation
step.
2.1.6. Centrifugation
The suspended ¯our particles are removed by cen-
trifugation after fermentation. It was assumed that a
decanter centrifuge was used and that the required
power was 40 kWh/tonne solid material discharged
(Perry and Chilton, 1973).
2.1.7. Ultra®ltration
Proteins in solution are removed by ultra®ltration.
The retentate stream containing proteins was assumed
to be 20% of the feed stream into the ultra®ltration unit
and the ¯ux was assumed to be 20 l/m2 h.
2.1.8. Electrodialysis
The protein-free product stream is transported to a
water-splitting electrodialysis unit. The sodium lactate
produced in the fermentation step is converted here to
lactic acid, and sodium hydroxide is produced by a
module containing two bipolar membranes splitting
water into hydrogen and hydroxide ions, and a cation
exchange membrane transporting sodium ions from the
lactate compartment to the compartment where sodium
hydroxide is produced. The transport of ions, J, over a
membrane has been described by Boniardi et al. (1997)
iA
Jˆ g; …1†
F
where i is the current density (A/m2 ), A is the membrane
area (m2 ), F is FaradayÕs constant (A h/mol), and g is the
current eciency. According to the membrane supplier,
the current eciency for the membranes, which was
used in the present evaluation, is greater than 0.94 and
thus, this value was used for g. A water transport of
0.043 l H2 0/mol Na‡ was assumed (Lee et al., 1998). In
the electrodialysis module, 90±95% of the lactate can be
converted to lactic acid (Bar and Byszewski, 1996). In
the present study, a conversion of 95% was assumed.
The number of stacks required was calculated assuming
that the membrane area was 0.4 m2 and the current
density 1080 A/m2 . The power consumption was calcu-
lated from the voltage drop over the membranes and the
compartments. The voltage drop was assumed to be
122 C. AÊ kerberg, G. Zacchi / Bioresource Technology 75 (2000) 119±126
4.86 V/cell over the membranes and 6.62 V/cell over the
compartments except over the compartment containing
sodium lactate where the voltage drop was determined
from the conductivity of sodium lactate, as described by
KohlrauschÕs law (Atkins, 1986). The voltage drop in
the boundary region of the membrane was neglected.
2.1.9. Concentration of lactic acid by evaporation
After electrodialysis, the lactic acid is concentrated to
70% (w/w) in the evaporation step. Evaporation was
assumed to be performed co-currently in three steps
below atmospheric pressure due to the polymerisation
property of lactic acid. The evaporator temperatures for
the three steps were assumed to be 89°C, 76°C and 56°C.
It was assumed that no lactic acid entered the vapour
phase after separation and that the increase in the
boiling point of water due to the presence of lactic acid
could be calculated from
DT ˆ 5:32w; …
where DT is the increase in boiling point (K) and w is the
mass fraction of lactic acid (g lactic acid/g solution)

(Akerberg and Zacchi, 1999). A condenser was also in-
cluded in the calculations after the last evaporator step.
Steam at 1 bar was assumed to be used for heating the
®rst evaporator. The heat transfer coecients for the
three evaporators and the condenser were assumed to be
4.8, 3.0, 0.9 and 3.0 kW/m2 K, respectively.
2.1.10. Heat exchangers
The two heat exchanger operations requiring most
energy were considered in the economical evaluation;
one used for heating the wheat ¯our suspension from
20°C to 90°C before the liquefaction step and the other
for heating the lactic acid solution from 20°C to 89°C
before the evaporator step. In both cases, steam at 1 bar
was assumed to be the heating medium. The heat
transfer coecients for the heat exchangers heating the
wheat ¯our suspension and the lactic acid solution were
assumed to be 0.5 and 1.5 kW/m2 K, respectively.
2.2. Alternative process con®gurations
A number of alternative processes, Processes 2±6,
were studied in order to investigate how integration and
physical properties in¯uenced the production cost of
lactic acid.
2.2.1. Fodder production (Process 2)
In Process 2, the proteins from the ultra®ltration step
are concentrated by evaporation in one step and mixed
with the remaining wheat ¯our from the centrifugation
step. This mixture is then dried and the ®nal product
sold as fodder. Evaporation was assumed to be per-
formed at 30°C, due to the presence of temperature-
sensitive proteins, using steam at a temperature of 50°C
as the heating medium. The heat transfer coecient for
the evaporator unit was assumed to be 1.5 kW/m2 K. It
was assumed that the mixture of ¯our and proteins was
dried using a drum dryer to a ®nal dryness of 90%. The
water-removing capacity and the area of the drum were
assumed to be 0.01 kg/m2 s and 35 m2 , respectively
(Coulson and Richardson, 1991).
2.2.2. Simultaneous sacchari®cation and fermentation
(Process 3)
In Process 3, the sacchari®cation and fermentation
steps were integrated i.e., performed simultaneously
(SSF). This integration can reduce the enzyme require-
ment. Due to inhibitory e€ects of the glucose as a product
in the sacchari®cation step and as a substrate in the fer-
mentation step, the lactic acid production rate increases
when the two process steps are integrated. Furthermore,
the number of reaction tanks can be reduced. However, it
has been observed that the release of nutrients due to
2†
enzymatic hydrolysis is critical and may reduce the
production rate in the fermentation step (Hofvendahl
et al., 1999). In the present study, the reactor volume was
determined using the previously developed kinetic mod-
els for the sacchari®cation and fermentation steps
assuming that the level of nutrients was not limiting, and
that fermentation was performed at pH 6 and 30°C.
2.2.3. Recycling sodium hydroxide from the electrodial-
ysis step (Process 4)
In Process 4, the sodium hydroxide produced in the
electrodialysis step is recycled to the fermentor. How-
ever, it must ®rst be concentrated in order not to dilute
the fermentation broth. The sodium lactate solution is
thus concentrated before the electrodialysis step by
evaporation at 100°C in one step to a concentration
corresponding to 200 g/l sodium hydroxide. The heat
transfer coecient for the evaporator unit was assumed
to be 1.5 kW/m2 K.
2.2.4. Lower pH values in the fermentation step (Process
5)
In Process 5, a reduced pH value is used in the fer-
mentation step. Reducing the pH reduces the amount of
sodium hydroxide required. A lower pH also reduces the
cost of the electrodialysis step. On the other hand, the
lactic acid production rate decreases when the pH is

lowered from 6 to 4 (Akerberg et al., 1998). The fer-
mentation volume was determined using the fermenta-
tion model developed earlier at pH 4 and pH 5

(Akerberg et al., 1998).
2.2.5. Continuous fermentation with cell recycling (Pro-
cess 6)
An alternative process con®guration (Process 6), in
which fermentation is performed continuously with cell
separation by micro®ltration and recycling of the cells to
 C. AÊ kerberg, G. Zacchi / Bioresource Technology 75 (2000) 119±126 123

Table 1
Calculation of investment costs, including installation and instrumentation, using Eq. (3)
Unit Capacity unit (Cap1 ) c0 (103 US$) Cap0 n
Grinder Wheat ¯our ¯ow rate 49.6 20 kg/s 0.65
Reactor tank Volume 254 628 m3 0.65
Residence tank Volume 254 628 m3 0.65
Agitator Power 49.6 50 kW 0.65
Centrifuge Wheat ¯our ¯ow 124 5 kg/s 0.65
Fermentor Volume 1077 1200 m3 0.65
Micro®lter membrane and module Membrane area 26.3 1 m2 1
Ultra®lter membrane and module Membrane area (m2 ) 6.58 1 m2 1
Dryer Number of drums 1230 1 1
Electrodialysis unit Number of cells 7.02 1 1
Electrode Number of cells 3.51 1 1
Heat exchangers Heat exchanger area 0.95±1.45a 1 m2 1
Separatorsb 54.9 1 1
a
The di€erent values refer to heat exchangers of di€erent materials, using di€erent gasket materials.
b
The separators are used to separate liquid and vapour in the evaporators.

the fermentor, was evaluated. The wheat ¯our is re- Table 2

moved by centrifugation before the fermentation step. Operational costs
Since cell growth is totally inhibited at high lactic acid Item Operational cost
concentrations, fermentation was assumed to be per- Labour 48,800 US$/employeeáyear
formed in two steps. To maintain a constant cell con- Process water/cooling water 0.0122 US$/m3
Power 0.0366 US$/kWh
centration, a bleed stream (1% of the stream from the
Steam 0.0220 US$/kg
centrifuge) was assumed. The membrane was assumed Wheat ¯our 0.134 US$/kga
to be ceramic with a ¯ux of 80 l/m2 h. 0.0915 US$/kgb
Enzyme (Termamyl) 3.54 US$/l
Enzyme (SAN Super) 8.05 US$/l
2.3. Economy Sodium hydroxide (40%) 0.292 US$/kg
Cleaning of membrane 0.122 US$/m3 permeate
The cost of major equipment was obtained from Ultra®ltration membrane 122 US$/m2 year
suppliers or estimates (Ulrich, 1984). Cost data, not Electrodialysis membrane 439 US$/cell year
a
considering costs for e.g., installation and instrumenta- No fodder production.
b
Fodder production, the price is calculated as the di€erence between
tion, were multiplied by a Lang factor including extra
the wheat cost and the price obtained for the fodder.
costs for piping, instrumentation, buildings, facilities,
engineering, construction, size, and unexpected costs
(Peters and Timmerhaus, 1991). The value of the Lang US$. It was assumed that the plant worked 7200 h/year
factor was assumed to be 3.6. A pay-o€ time of 15 years and that four technicians worked in ®ve shifts at the
and an interest rate of 5% were assumed, giving an an- plant.
nuity present worth factor of 0.0963 (Peters and Tim-
merhaus, 1991). For scale-up of equipment costs, the
equation 3. Results
 n
Cap1 The production cost of 70% lactic acid, using the
c1 ˆ c0 …3†
Cap0 con®guration in Process 1, was evaluated. In all calcu-

lations, the computer program BioProcSim (Akerberg,
was used where c represents the equipment cost, Cap is 2000) was used. A lactic acid production capacity of
the capacity of an operation, n is the scale-up factor and 3  104 tonnes/year was assumed. The production cost
the subscripts 0 and 1 represent the reference unit and and the amount of product formed per unit mass raw
unit under study, respectively. For smaller reactors and material were evaluated for di€erent wheat ¯our con-
tanks, a scale-up factor of 0.67 was used and for fer- centrations corresponding to 50, 70, 90, 130 and 180 g/l
mentors, larger tanks, membranes, heat exchangers, and glucose after the sacchari®cation step and are presented
evaporators, n was assumed to be 1. The cost data and in Table 3. The amount of lactic acid produced per unit
capacities in Eq. (3) for di€erent unit operations are mass raw material decreases with increasing wheat ¯our
presented in Table 1, and operational costs are pre- concentration, while the cost decreases with increasing
sented in Table 2. An exchange rate of 8.20 SEK/US$ wheat ¯our concentration up to 70 g glucose/l. The in-
was used for the conversion of Swedish cost data to vestment and operational costs for this concentration,
124 C. AÊ kerberg, G. Zacchi / Bioresource Technology 75 (2000) 119±126

Table 3
The lactic acid production cost at di€erent wheat ¯our concentrations
for Process 1
Glucose concen- Cost (US$/ kg Amount of 70%
tration (g/l) lactic acida ) lactic acid pro-
duced per unit
mass raw material
(kg/kg)
50 1.10 0.64
70 1.06 0.58
90 1.08 0.54
130 1.10 0.47
180 1.15 0.39
a
Lactic acid with a concentration of 70%.
Fig. 3. The lactic acid production cost (US$/kg) for di€erent glucose
distributed over the di€erent parts of the process, are concentrations (g/l) for di€erent process con®gurations; Process 1 (r),
presented in Fig. 2. fodder production (Process 2) (m), simultaneous sacchari®cation and
It was observed that the operational cost contributed fermentation (Process 3) (*), recovery and recycling of sodium hy-
droxide (Process 4) (´), pH 4 (Process 5) (d), pH 5 (Process 5) (+) and
about 80% to the total cost. The major operational costs continuous fermentation (Process 6) (j).
are the cost of raw material, sacchari®cation, fermen-
tation, and electrodialysis. To reduce these costs, the
process can be integrated or the pH value lowered ac- sodium hydroxide from the electrodialysis step to the
cording to Processes 2±6. The lactic acid production cost fermentor was thus evaluated (Fig. 3, Process 4). It was
for these processes was evaluated and is presented in found that the cost could be reduced by as much as 0.26
Fig. 3. US$/kg for the highest wheat ¯our concentration. An-
To reduce the cost of the raw material, the recovery other way of reducing the sodium hydroxide consump-
of wheat ¯our and proteins for the production of fodder tion is to perform fermentation at a lower pH. The
was evaluated (Fig. 3, Process 2,). It was found to be production cost was evaluated at pH 4, 5 and 6 and
advantageous to produce fodder only when high wheat Fig. 3 shows that the cost decreases with decreasing pH.
¯our concentrations are used. It has been reported (Vick Roy, 1983; Timmer and
The major contributor to the operational cost in the Kromkamp, 1994) that the continuous production of
sacchari®cation step is the cost of the enzyme mixture. lactic acid with cell recycling is economically favourable.
This can be reduced by integrating the sacchari®cation The lactic acid production cost was thus estimated for
and fermentation steps (Process 3). The cost was eval- this process con®guration and compared with that in
uated assuming that the level of nutrients was not lim- Process 1 (Fig. 3, Process 6). However, this process al-
iting (Fig. 3, Process 3). It was observed that the cost ternative did not reduce the cost, based on the data used
could be reduced by 0.02±0.12 US$/kg using SSF. in this study.
The cost of sodium hydroxide dominates the opera- Numerical optimisation with respect to the wheat
tional cost in the fermentation step and recycling of ¯our concentration was performed for Process 4, which
was considered the best process con®guration. This
showed that the optimal wheat ¯our concentration
corresponded to a glucose concentration of 116 g/l, re-
sulting in a lactic acid production cost of 0.88 US$/kg.
To investigate the sensitivity of the cost data, a
Monte Carlo simulation was performed. The wheat
price and investment and operational costs were as-
sumed to vary with a Gaussian distribution with stan-
dard deviations of 10, 20 and 20%, respectively. The
simulation showed that the probabilities that the pro-
duction cost would be lower than 0.90 and 1.0 US$/kg
are 61% and 91%, respectively (Fig. 4).

Fig. 2. The investment (h) and operational costs (j) for Process 1
4. Discussion
using a wheat ¯our concentration corresponding to 70 g/l. Hydrolysis
comprises the liquefaction and sacchari®cation steps, separation, the
centrifugation and ultra®ltration steps and recovery comprises the The production cost of lactic acid with a concentra-
electrodialysis and evaporator steps. tion of 70% (w/w) was evaluated for di€erent process
 C. AÊ kerberg, G. Zacchi / Bioresource Technology 75 (2000) 119±126
Fig. 4. Probability of various production costs of lactic acid, obtained
by Monte Carlo simulation.
con®gurations. The optimum wheat ¯our concentration
was determined and a Monte Carlo simulation was
performed to investigate the sensitivity of cost data. It
should be observed that only the actual process costs
and not the cost of, for example, transportation and
storage were considered in the cost evaluation. Cost
evaluation is, however, a valuable tool in identifying
bottlenecks in the process and for the comparison of
di€erent processes.
Fig. 3 shows that it is only advantageous to recover
wheat ¯our and proteins as fodder (Process 2) at the
highest wheat ¯our concentration studied since the re-
covery cost, mainly due to drying, was higher than the
expected income from the fodder at the lower con-
centrations. It is also uncertain whether fodder con-
taining large amounts of lactic acid is an attractive
product.To reduce the raw material cost, an alternative
raw material must be found, either containing both a
carbon source and nutrients, as does wheat, or a car-
bon source which can be complemented with a cheap
nutrient.
Integration of the sacchari®cation and fermentation
steps reduces the lactic acid production cost slightly
(Fig. 3). The cost of the enzyme mixture is decreased and
the extra tanks for the sacchari®cation step can be
eliminated. The cost evaluations for simultaneous sac-
chari®cation and fermentation were performed assum-
ing that the amount of nutrients in the wheat ¯our is
sucient for the fermentation to be performed at max-
imum level i.e., the addition of extra nutrients will not
increase the product formation rate. Therefore, no costs
for extra nutrients were included in the economical
evaluation. It has been observed that the amount of
nutrients is sucient when a wheat ¯our concentration
corresponding to 180 g/l glucose and an enzyme con-
centration of 7 ml/kg starch are used while at 90 g/l, the
release of nutrients due to enzymatic hydrolysis is not
sucient and an extra nutrient source is required
(Hofvendahl et al., 1999). For simultaneous sacchari®-
cation and fermentation to be advantageous at a lower
125
enzyme concentration, or at lower wheat ¯our concen-
trations, a cheap nutrient must be found.
The recovery of sodium hydroxide produced in the
electrodialysis step and recycling of this to the fermentor
reduces the lactic acid production cost considerably
(Fig. 3). Since the product stream must be concentrated
by evaporation before the electrodialysis step in order to
produce sodium hydroxide with a suciently high con-
centration, the cost reduction increases with increasing
wheat ¯our concentration.
The cost evaluations indicated that performing fer-
mentation at a lower pH is favourable (Fig. 3). Lower-
ing the pH decreases the cost of sodium hydroxide in the
fermentation step, as well as the cost of conversion of
lactate in the electrodialysis step. On the other hand,
since the product formation rate decreases with pH

(Akerberg et al., 1998), the investment cost for the fer-
mentor step increases. However, the bene®ts of reduced
sodium hydroxide consumption and cheaper electrodi-
alysis are greater than the increase in investment cost. It
should be observed that the kinetic model for pH 4 and
pH 5 is based on fermentation experiments performed
over a short time period, producing only low concen-

trations of lactic acid (Akerberg et al., 1998). The value
of the fermentor volume is therefore uncertain.
Continuous fermentation is not favourable compared
with batchwise fermentation (Fig. 3, Process 6). Cell
growth is totally inhibited at lactic acid concentrations

higher than 73 g/l at pH 6 (Akerberg et al., 1998). Even
if several fermentors in a cascade are used, at least one
must operate near this concentration where the rate of
cell growth and thus, the product formation rate, is very
low. To compensate for the long fermentation times,
large fermentation volumes are required increasing the
investment cost for fermentation when the wheat ¯our
concentration is high. For lower wheat ¯our concen-
trations where the lactic acid concentration after the
fermentation step is lower than 73 g/l, the required fer-
mentor volume will be smaller for continuous fermen-
tation (Process 6) than for batchwise fermentation
(Process 1). However, for continuous fermentation, a
micro®ltration unit associated with a high investment
cost is required for cell separation. This results in a
higher lactic acid production cost for all wheat ¯our
concentrations for Process 6.
The optimum wheat ¯our concentration for Process 4
corresponds to 116 g glucose/l. The cost of separation
and recovery decreases and the cost of fermentation and
enzymatic hydrolysis increases with increasing wheat
¯our concentration. The Monte Carlo simulation
showed that, by assuming that the wheat price, invest-
ment and operational costs vary with a Gaussian dis-
tribution with standard deviations of 10%, 20% and 20%
respectively, the probabilities that the price would be
lower than 0.90 and 1.0 US$/kg are 61% and 91%, re-
spectively (Fig. 4). The investment cost does not in¯u-
126 C. AÊ kerberg, G. Zacchi / Bioresource Technology 75 (2000) 119±126
ence the total cost to any large degree and the variation
in this cost will not a€ect the total production cost as
much as the operational cost and the wheat price.
To investigate whether a reduction in pH in the fer-
mentation step is as advantageous as this study indi-
cates, further experimental studies must be performed.
Since the in¯uence of nutrients on simultaneous sac-
chari®cation and fermentation has not been investigated
in detail and the economical evaluation is thus uncer-
tain, this might be worth studying in more detail. It
would also be of interest to investigate alternative raw
materials and nutrients with a view to reducing the cost.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the Swedish National Board for
Industrial and Technical Development for their ®nancial
support.
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