Glutamic acid production from wheat by-products using enzymatic and acid hydrolysis

Glutamic acid (Glu) has potential as feedstock for bulk chemicals production. It has also been listed as one of the top twelve chemicals derived from biomass. Large amounts of cheaper Glu can be made available by enabling its production from biomass by-products, such as wheat dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) derived from ethanol production. The aim of this study was to develop a new method for Glu production from biomass. Wheat gluten was used to represent wheat DDGS. To reduce chemicals usage, several methods were evaluated. These included enzymatic, dilute acid, and a combination of enzymatic and dilute acid hydrolysis. The separate enzymatic and dilute acid hydrolysis (1 M HCl; 95 °C) resulted in yields of 48% and 46% Glu, respectively. However, the combination of enzymatic and dilute acid hydrolysis resulted in a much higher yield of 70% Glu and 10% pyroglutamic acid thereby opening up new possibilities for the industrial production of Glu from biomass.