Improvement of Polymer Grade L-Lactic Acid Production Using Lactobacillus rhamnosus SCJ9 from Low-Grade Cassava Chips by Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The study appears to be legitimate and interesting. The planning of the assessment and the manner of performing all determinations is very satisfactory. However, attempts to obtain lactic acid from cassava have already been described, which slightly reduces the originality of the study (Wang L. Efficient production of L-lactic acid from cassava powder by Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Bioresour Technol. 2010 Oct; 101 (20): 7895- 901; Coelho L. Improvement of L (+) - lactic acid production from cassava wastewater by Lactobacillus rhamnosus B 103. J Sci Food Agric. 2010 Aug 30; 90 (11): 1944-50).
Some points need to be clarified
- in the introduction section, it is worth writing about the rationale that led researchers to choose Lactobacillus rhamnosus
- "a by-product as a viable biomass cell is highly expected to be utilized as probiotic for food and feed application" - it seems that the road to recognition as a probiotic is very long. This statement might be slightly exaggerated.
- It may be worth mentioning what are the limitations of the study

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Methods are traditional. Some parts of the paper is to general. In my opinion the whole part of Materials and Methods should be more consistently described because in its present form it can’t be accepted.

Therefore, in my opinion the work should be revised.

Please check manuscript in terms of typos and spelling.

Specific comments are included in the pdf of the article.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Improvement of Polymer Grade L-Lactic Acid Production from Low-grade Cassava Chips by Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation using Lactobacillus rhamnosus SCJ9

The authors present the L-lactic acid production from cassava chips using new Lectobacillus rhamnosus SCJ9b to up scaling. This study showed the efficient and economic production of L-lactic acid from low-grade cassava chips and the conversion rate is very high. Generally as authors mentioned the success is interesting message and the experimental data are well justified. However, some miner part need to edit.

1. It is not clear why the production of L-type lactic acid is important?
2. Line 319, It is not clear that the high initial sugar concentration reduced lactic acid production.
3. Why the initial starch concentration of TSF and SSF is set by 20%

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Accept in present form.