Simultaneous production of nisin and lactic acid from cheese whey

A biorefinery process that utilizes cheese whey as substrate to simultaneously produce nisin, a natural food preservative, and lactic acid, a raw material for biopolymer production, was studied. The conditions for nisin biosynthesis and lactic acid coproduction by Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis (ATCC 11454) in a whey-based medium were optimized using statistically based experimental designs. A Plackett-Burman design was applied to screen seven parameters for significant factors for the production of nisin and lactic acid. Nutrient supplements, including yeast extract, MgSO4, and KH2PO4, were found to be the significant factors affecting nisin and lactic acid formation. As a follow-up, a central-composite design was applied to optimize these factors. Second-order polynomial models were developed to quantify the relationship between nisin and lactic acid production and the variables. The optimal values of these variables were also determined. Finally, a verification experiment was performed to confirm the optimal values that were predicted by the models. The experimented results agreed well with the model prediction, giving a similar production of 19.3 g/L of lactic acid and 92.9 mg/L of nisin.