Anaerobic fermentative production of lactic acid using cheese whey and corn steep liquor

Cheese whey was the most suitable substrate for production of lactic acid under anaerobic conditions by Entercoccus flavescens which, on supplementating with corn steep liquor (5% v/v) and 10 mM CaCO3 at pH 5.5, 37 degrees C, yielded 12.6 g lactic acid/l in 36 h. Production was scaled up to a 10 l bioreactor under controlled pH and continuous CO2 supply and gave 28 g lactic acid/l in 30 h resulting in a net 8.7-fold increase in production as compared to unoptimized conditions.