Amine-based aqueous polymers for the simultaneous titration and extraction of lactic acid in aqueous two-phase systems

The partitioning of 10% (w/w) lactic acid in ethylene oxide propylene oxide (EOPO) random copolymers and dextran T500 aqueous two-phase systems was studied. An analysis of variance design was applied to investigate the effect of pH, polymer concentration, and addition of polyethyleneimine to the aqueous two-phase systems. The lowest lactate partition coefficient of 0.09 was obtained at pH 6 in the systems containing 7.2% (w/w) polyethyleneimine. The use of polyethyleneimine as titrating base during the fermentative production of lactic acid was evaluated in batch fermentations with 100 g/l glucose. Yield and productivity of polyethyleneimine titrated fermentations compared with those obtained in fermentations titrated with NaOH and KOH.