Análisis cienciométrico y de minería de texto sobre la producción de ácido láctico a partir de biomasa residual

Abstract

Lactic acid is a raw material of great importance for the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries, which is obtained through two routes, chemical and biotechnological using agro-industrial residues, the latter being the one of interest for the present study. In Santander in 2021, 920.900 tons (t) of agro-industrial waste were produced from sugar cane, citrus (lemon, tangerine and orange) and cocoa crops, where the contribution per crop was 79%, 18% and 3% respectively, with the potential to produce lactic acid, whose world production for the year 2025 is estimated at 1.96 Mt. In Colombia, in the year 2020, 19 t were produced and 460 t were imported, evidencing the imbalance that exists, making the production of lactic acid an attractive process. The present study consisted of using a scientometric analysis strategy, which yielded 418 articles indexed in the Scopus database for the period 2010-2023, with 2022 being the year of greatest activity with 74 documents. In the same period of time, through the Lens software, 437 patents were found, of which 169 correspond to applications and 268 to granted patents, highlighting the year 2016 with 58 granted; all the scientometric information was analyzed using the Vosviewer and Vantage Point software. From the analysis of results, the acid and alkaline pretreatments accompanied by the enzymatic ones were the most found and for the fermentative process the lactobacillus of the plantarum, delbrueckii, pentosus and coagulans species were the most used.