Ecology & Safety, Volume 12, 2018

Abstract: To date, more than 90% of global lactic acid production is achieved by microbial fermentation of sugars. Despite the significant advantages of microbial production process over the chemical means, the final production cost is relatively high and still limits product application. In commercial scale, it is considered that a significant part of production cost is determined by the substrate cost, so the use of sugars is not so economically feasible. A promising alternative to overcome this problem is the development of new strategies for utilizing cheaper and abundant in nature materials, such as biomass or polysaccharides containing industrial residues. In this review are summarized the current problems and limitations of biological production process like the last achievements in lactic acid production from renewable raw resources, such as lignocelluloses, starchy materials and inulin-containing substrates. Although all these attempts are still on laboratory scale, they receive extensive attention because of their potential possibilities to replace sugars utilization in microbial lactic acid production and to provide an economically competitive and eco-friendly production process.