Technological and economic potential of poly(lactic acid) and lactic acid derivatives

TLDR

Lactic acid, a ~40,000‑ton specialty chemical, is poised to become a large‑volume renewable commodity for biodegradable polymers, solvents, and other green products, as evidenced by new large‑scale plants from major U.S. companies, though recovery, purification, and conversion remain key cost challenges. This paper reviews recent technical advances in lactic and polylactic acid processes and presents economic potential and manufacturing cost estimates for various products and process options. Novel separations such as electrodialysis with bipolar membranes, extractive distillation integrated with fermentation, and chemical conversion enable low‑cost, continuous, large‑scale production of lactic acid intermediates.

Abstract

Lactic acid has been an intermediate-volume specialty chemical (world production ∼ 40,000 tons/yr) used in a wide range of food processing and industrial applications. Lactic acid has the potential of becoming a very large volume, commodity-chemical intermediate produced from renewable carbohydrates for use as feedstocks for biodegradable polymers, oxygenated chemicals, plant growth regulators, environmentally friendly 'green' solvents, and specialty chemical intermediates. The recent announcements of new development-scale plants for producing lactic acid and polymer intermediates by major U.S. companies, such as Cargill, Ecochem (DuPont/ConAgra), and Archer Daniels Midland, attest to this potential. In the past, efficient and economical technologies for the recovery and purification of lactic acid from crude fermentation broths and the conversion of lactic acid to the chemical or polymer intermediates had been the key technology impediments and main process cost centers. The development and deployment of novel separations technologies, such as electrodialysis (ED) with bipolar membranes, extractive distillations integrated with fermentation, and chemical conversion, can enable low-cost production with continuous processes in large-scale operations. The use of bipolar ED can virtually eliminate the salt or gypsum waste produced in the current lactic acid processes. Thus, the emerging technologies can use environmentally sound processes to produce environmentally useful products from lactic acid. The process economics of some of these processes and products can also be quite attractive. In this paper, the recent technical advances in lactic and polylactic acid processes are discussed. The economic potential and manufacturing cost estimates of several products and process options are presented. The technical accomplishments at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the future directions of this program at ANL are discussed.