Removing chiral contamination of lactate solutions by selective metabolism of the D-enantiomer
A bio-based process is appealing for purification of L-lactic acid, the major enantiomer of polylactic acid syrup, generated by thermochemical processes at the end of life of PLA-based plastics, from its chiral impurity, d-lactic acid, before reuse. Polylactic acid (PLA), a renewable alternative to petroleum-derived plastics, contains a mixture of l- and d-lactic acid (LA) isomers with the l-isomer dominating (up to 95 %). A novel bio-based process was developed to produce chirally pure l-LA from syrup produced during recycling of PLA-plastics. This process utilizes an engineered Escherichia coli (strain DC1001) containing novel gene deletions (lld, ykg) that eliminated the oxidative metabolism of L-lactate, leaving the membrane-bound d-lactate dehydrogenases to selectively metabolize the d-isomer. Strain DC1001 removed 8.7 g d-lactate l –1 from a PLA-syrup containing 135 g total lactic acid l –1 in 24 h. Average rates of removal of D-lactic acid were 0.25 g D-lactate h –1 (g cell dry weight) –1 and 0.36 g D-lactate l –1 h –1 . Bio-based purification of PLA-syrup utilizing E. coli strain DC1001 is an attractive process step during recycling of PLA-plastics. Here, this selective oxidation process can also be used to remove chiral contamination of L-lactate in medical applications.