Multi-product biorefinery from Arthrospira platensis biomass as feedstock for bioethanol and lactic acid production

With the aim to reach the maximum recovery of bulk and specialty bioproducts while minimizing waste generation, a multi-product biorefinery for ethanol and lactic acid production from the biomass of cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis was investigated. Therefore, the residual biomass resulting from different pretreatments consisting of supercritical fluid extraction (SF) and microwave assisted extraction with non-polar (MN) and polar solvents (MP), previously applied on A. platensis to extract bioactive metabolites, was further valorized. In particular, it was used as a substrate for fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae LPB-287 and Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 43121 to produce bioethanol (BE) and lactic acid (LA), respectively. The maximum concentrations achieved were 3.02 +/- 0.07 g/L of BE by the MN process at 120 rpm 30 degrees C, and 9.67 +/- 0.05 g/L of LA by the SF process at 120 rpm 37 degrees C. An economic analysis of BE and LA production was carried out to elucidate the impact of fermentation scale, fermenter costs, production titer, fermentation time and cyanobacterial biomass production cost. The results indicated that the critical variables are fermenter scale, equipment cost, and product titer; time process was analyzed but was not critical. As scale increased, costs tended to stabilize, but also more product was generated, which causes production costs per unit of product to sharply decrease. The median value of production cost was US$ 1.27 and US$ 0.39, for BE and LA, respectively, supporting the concept of cyanobacterium biomass being used for fermentation and subsequent extraction to obtain ethanol and lactic acid as end products from A. platensis.

Automated summary

This study investigated the production of ethanol and lactic acid from the biomass of cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis through fermentation. Critical economic factors include fermentation scale, equipment cost, and product titer. As scale increases, production costs per unit of product sharply decrease.