Dual-biocatalytic l-lactate production from gaseous CO2 and acetaldehyde

Abstract

L-Lactate has attracted considerable attention as a precursor for the biodegradable plastic poly L-lactic acid (PLA). It is expected that producing biodegradable plastic precursors from CO₂ and bio-based materials will lead to sustainable plastic use, recovery, and recycling. In this study, a new method for the production of L-lactate via pyruvate as an intermediate from acetaldehyde and gaseous CO₂ in the presence of thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) and the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) was developed using a dual-biocatalytic system of pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC; Enzyme Commission numbers (EC) 4.1.1.1) from Lactobacillus YK1 and L-lactate dehydrogenase (LDH; EC 1.1.1.27) from chicken heart without toxic raw materials such as hydrogen cyanide. By using the dual-biocatalytic system of PDC and LDH, 0.35% of the acetaldehyde was successfully converted to L-lactate after 5 h of incubation.