Biochemical Engineering

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Utilization of Duckweed as a Carbon Source for the Production of Lactic Acid
(AAU, 2017-06) Endriss, Ali; Eduardo, Ojito (Prof.)
Despite a great deal of research work on lactic acid fermentation in the past, the production of lactic acid from duckweed has yet to be investigated. In this study lactic acid was produced from duckweed thourgh existing technologies of saccharification/acid hydrolysis and fermentation of starch would been used for duckweed-to-lactic acid conversion. For this purpose, small fronds of duckweed plants was harvested, crushed and prepared into a solution. The duckweed slurry was subjected to acid hydrolysis. Then, fermentation of duckweed hydro-lysate was done in shake flasks using Lactobacillus plantarum species which was isolated from enset. The immediate solutions were anlysed by using UV-Spectrophotometer (concentration of lactic acid) and serial dilution methocd (viable cell count). Finally, the optimum operation conditions of fermentation (i.e. incubation time, pH and temperature) were determined by using design expert software (version 10.0.1). and the optimum incubation time, pH and temprature were 21 hours, 6.4 and 34 0 C respectively. The amount of lactic acid produced and number of viable cells at optimum operating conditions of fermentations were 15.6574g/L and 4.34004E+008.