In order to efficiently produce L-lactic acid from non-food feedstocks, sweet sorghum juice (SSJ), which is rich of fermentable sugars, was directly used for L-lactic acid fermentation by Lactobacillus rhamnosus LA-04-1. A membrane integrated repeated batch fermentation (MIRB) was developed for productivity improvement. High-cell-density fermentation was achieved with a final cell density (OD620) of 42.3, and the CCR effect was overcomed. When SSJ (6.77 g L-1 glucose, 4.51 g L-1 fructose and 50.46 g L-1 sucrose) was used as carbon source in MIRB process, L-lactic acid productivity was increased significantly from 1.45 g L-1 h(-1) (batch 1) to 17.55 g L-1 h(-1) (batch 6). This process introduces an effective way to produce L-lactic acid from SSJ. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.