Читать книгу Poly(lactic acid) - Группа авторов - Страница 17

Lactic acid was discovered in 1780 by the experimental chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who isolated “acid of milk” from sour whey [12, 13]. A further description of the history of lactic acid by Holten and Benninga shows that industrial production of lactic acid started in the United States in the 1880s [14, 15]. Avery patented and applied a process of fermentation of vegetable sugars [16]. The actual application was the use of a mixture of calcium lactate and lactic acid as baking powder. Unfortunately, this application was not a big success, but other applications in food and textile dyeing were developed.

FIGURE 1.1 Two enantiomeric forms of lactic acid: (S)‐ and (R)‐2‐hydroxypropionic acid.

In 1950, the first commercial production of synthetic lactic acid started in Japan [15]. Lactonitrile was produced from acetaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide and hydrolyzed in the second stage to lactic acid. For some decades, synthetic lactic acid competed with lactic acid obtained by fermentation, but currently almost all lactic acid is produced by fermentation.