PLAntCycle
Duration: 01.10.2022-30.09.2025
Funding provider: BMBF ‘FH-Kooperativ’ Funding reference:13FH115KX1
Initial situation:
Lactic acid is a versatile, sustainable platform molecule for the food and chemical industry, especially for the production of the bioplastic polylactide (PLA or polylactic acid). For production, the biogenic production route via the anaerobic fermentation of starch-rich raw materials is currently being pursued. This takes place in special fermenters in which optimum conditions can be set in terms of temperature, nutrient supply, pH value, oxygen content, etc. Products such as maize starch or sugar cane are used as starting materials. The high costs of these raw materials and their competing use as food and animal feed are currently limiting the production and commercialisation of bioplastics.
The project:
The PLAntCycle project, led by Prof Tippkötter, involves a collaboration between BioVT, the NOWUM-Energy Institute (both at Aachen University of Applied Sciences) and the company BluCon Biotech GmbH to develop a process in which the platform molecule lactic acid is produced from straw as a starting material. Various mechanical and thermal pre-treatment methods such as the Organosolv process are being tested in the project in order to extract cellulose and hemicellulose. In a further step, enzymatic hydrolysis is carried out, followed by microbial conversion. In addition to the scalability and investigations into the utilisation of the by-products, the transfer to other previously unused raw materials is also to take place. In order to be able to create an overall economic assessment, energy and mass balances as well as cost and life cycle analyses will be created in parallel to the laboratory tests.
Objectives:
The aim of the project is the cost-effective production of polylactic acid (PLA) from a wide range of plant-based raw materials. A bioplastic is thus produced from a consolidated bioprocess. The pre-treated raw materials serve as a substrate for an innovative microbial process that simultaneously hydrolyses plant polysaccharides into monosaccharides and converts these into lactic acid, the monomer of PLA. Both types of sugar, glucose and xylose, are utilised equally. To achieve this goal, the mechanical and thermal pre-treatment of straw is being optimised. The aim is to optimise the use of energy and materials while maximising productivity.
