Abstract
In order to screen microorganism producing lactic acid with high productivity from nature, we used a medium containing 100 g/l glucose and selected several microorganisms producing more than 80 g/l L-lactic acid. We investigated their physiological characteristics and compared them. The best microorganism was identified as Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus. The optimum pH for growth and production of lactic acid was 6.0 and this strain showed the highest growth rate at around 30$\circ$C , but the optimum temperature for lactic acid production was 45$\circ$C . The growth was inhibited proportionally from 50 g/l to 300 g/l of glucose and the maximal cell mass increased according to increasing the concentration of corn steep liquor (CSL) protein up to 30 g/l. In batch fermentation for lactic acid production, we produced 128 g/l L-lactic acid with 20 g/l CSL protein and 150 g/l glucose in 35 hours. In pH-stat fed-batch fermentation, we were able to produce 183 g/l L-lactic acid.