Abstract
Lignocellulosic materials can come from a variety of sources, including agro-industrial residues, and can serve as raw material to produce various chemical compounds. There is an appeal to produce bioplastics from lignocellulosic materials because they have similar applications and are biodegradable. For instance, the use of poly-lactic acid (PLA) has been encouraged to meet the demand for alternatives that reduce the environmental impacts caused by plastic waste. Before obtaining bioplastics, the lignocellulosic material (sugarcane bagasse) undergoes a pre-treatment process to make its constituents available (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and others). Thus, they can be fermented by producing microorganism. The supercritical technologies (such as H2O) in the pre-treatment and conversion of cellulose represents an alternative to conventional methods as they generate less waste. Given this scenario, this work aimed to study the production of PLA, derived from sugarcane bagasse constituents and fermentation by Bacillus coagulans to produce lactic acid (LA). Thus, the steps of supercritical pre-treatment, fermentation for LA production and polymerization (PLA production) in the Aspen Plus simulator were simulated. The results showed that it was possible to simulate all steps, a compatible route, being able to aggregate these processes in an ethanol production biorefinery. In this way, a strategy can be traced to conduct future simulations involving new scenarios.
