Extraction of lactic acid into sunflower oil and its recovery into an aqueous solution (original) (raw)
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Effects of Organic Phase, Fermentation Media, and Operating Conditions on Lactic Acid Extraction
Lactic acid has extensive uses in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and chemical industry. Lately, its use in producing biodegradable polymeric materials (polylactate) makes the production of lactic acid from fermentation broths very important. The major part of the production cost accounts for the cost of separation from very dilute reaction media where productivity is low as a result of the inhibitory nature of lactic acid. The current method of extraction/separation is both expensive and unsustainable. Therefore, there is great scope for development of alternative technology that will offer efficiency, economic, and environmental benefits. One of the promising technologies for recovery of lactic acid from fermentation broth is reactive liquid-liquid extraction. In this paper the extraction and recovery of lactic acid based on reactive processes is examined and the performance of a hydrophobic microporous hollow-fiber membrane module (HFMM) is evaluated. First, equilibrium experiments were conducted using organic solutions consisting of Aliquat 336/trioctylamine (as a carrier) and tri-butyl phosphate (TBP)/sunflower oil (as a solvent) The values of the distribution coefficient were obtained as a function of feed pH, composition of the organic phase (ratio of carrier to solvent), and temperature (range 8-40 °C). The optimum extraction was obtained with the organic phase consisting of a mixture of 15 wt % tri-octylamine (TOA) and 15% Aliquat 336 and 70% solvent. The organic phase with TBP performed best but is less suitable because of its damaging properties (toxicity and environmental impact) and cost. Sunflower oil, which performed moderately, can be regarded as a better option as it has many desirable characteristics (nontoxic, environment-and operator-friendly) and it costs much less. The percentage extraction was approximately 33% at pH 6 and at room temperature (can be enhanced by operating at higher temperatures) at a feed flow rate of 15-20 L/h. These results suggest that the hollow-fiber membrane process yields good percentage extraction at the fermentation conditions and its in situ application could improve the process productivity by suppressing the inhibitory effect of lactic acid.
The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 1999
Mass transfer of lactic acid was investigated during its extractive recovery from fermentation broths in a hydrophobic hollow-fibre membrane module. The solvent and the aqueous phases were continuously recycled through the hollow-fibre module into their respective reservoirs, and the mass transfer rate was calculated from the measurements of concentration of lactic acid in solvent phase. Mainly, the tubeside resistance controlled the mass transfer rate. A mathematical analysis was conducted for the mass transfer process in the membrane module and values of the overall mass transfer coefficient were estimated at different flow rates. On a etudie le transfert de matiere d'acide lactique au cours de sa recuperation par extraction de bouillons de fermentation dans un module de membranes a fibres creuses hydrophobes. Les phases solvant et aqueuse ont ete recyclees en permanence a travers le module de fibres creuses dans leurs reservoirs respectifs, et la vitesse du transfert de matiere a ete calculee a partir des mesures de concentration d'acide lactique dans la phase solvant. La resistance a la paroi des tubes contrde principalement la vitesse de transfert de matiere. On a effectue une analyse mathematique pour le procede de transfert de matiere dans le module de membranes, et les valeurs du coefficient global du transfert de matiere ont ete estimees a differents debits.
Separation and Purification Technologies for Lactic Acid – A Brief Review
Bioresources, 2017
Lactic acid is an important platform chemical with a wide range of applications. Production of lactic acid by fermentation is advantageous because renewable and low cost raw materials can be used as substrates. After fermentation, the broth needs to be purified to obtain pure lactic acid for further uses. Thus, efficient downstream processes are very important because they account for 50% of the production costs. This review discusses different processes that are currently employed for lactic acid recovery, focusing on precipitation, solvent extraction, and separation with membranes. Advances in such recovery processes and drawbacks that limit the application of these technologies at the industrial level are also presented.
In situ reactive extraction of lactic acid from fermentation media
Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 2001
Extractive lactic acid fermentation was investigated in the presence of sun¯ower oil and Alamine-336 (with oleyl alcohol as the diluent solvent). Lactic acid was produced in various media at 37°C using Lactobacillus delbrueckii . First, the effects of oleyl alcohol (33.3%, v/v), immobilisation, and immobilisation in the presence of sun¯ower oil (5, 10, 15%, v/v) on lactic acid production were investigated. It was found that oleyl alcohol did not affect production while addition of sun¯ower oil increased lactic acid production from 10.22 to 16.46 gdm À3 . On the other hand, a toxic effect was observed for oleyl alcohol solutions containing 15±50% (v/v) Alamine-336. A maximum total lactic acid concentration of 25.59 gdm À3 was obtained when an oleyl alcohol solution containing 15% (v/v) Alamine together with immobilised cells with 15% (v/v) sun¯ower oil was used. This value was about 2.5 times that obtained from fermentation without organic solutions.
Reactive extraction of lactic acid with Trioctylamine/Octanol/n-Undecane
2017
The trioctylamine (TOA)/methylene chloride (MC)ln-hexane system was used as the extraction agent for the extraction of lactic acid. Curves of equilibrium and hydration were obtained at various temperatures and concentrations of TOA. A modified mass action model was proposed to interpret the equilibrium and the hydration curves. The reaction mechanism and the corresponding parameters which best represent the equilibrium data were estimated, and the concentration of water in the organic phase was predicted by inserting the parameters into the simple mathematical equation of the modified model. The concentration of MC and the change of temperature were important factors for the extraction and the stripping process. The stripping was performed by a simple distillation which was a combination of temperature-swing regeneration and diluent-swing regeneration. The type of inactive diluent has no influence on the stripping. The stripping eficiencies were about 70%.
2019
This thesis aims to study a combined process of counter-current extraction and reactive distillation for recovery and purification of lactic acid from fermentation broth. Research work in the thesis is divided into four parts. The first part is the study of extraction of lactic acid with 1-butanol at room temperature using counter-current packed liquid-liquid extraction column. Sauter mean drop diameter (d32) was used to evaluate the mean dop size in the extraction and correlation of d32 was investigated. The results showed that d32 decreased with increasing dispersed phase flow rate (Qd) and decreasing nozzle diameter (DN), resulting in increasing dispersed phase mass transfer coefficient. An increase in continuous phase flow rate (Qc) affected increasing drop size, due to the coalescence of drops, resulting in reducing dispersed phase mass transfer coefficient. The second part is the synthesis and use of aluminum alginate as a solid catalyst for esterification of lactic acid with 1-butanol. Characteristics of the prepared catalyst were studied. It was found that aluminum alginate has low crystallinity, wrinkle surface and likely create strong Lewis acid sites for esterification. However, it was found that the prepared catalyst was of low thermal stability. Catalytic activity of aluminum alginate in esterification of lactic acid was investigated and found to be higher than the IV commercial catalyst, Amberlyst-15, under the same reaction conditions. In addition, it was observed that Langmuir-Hinshelwood model was able to describe the kinetic model of this reaction with small value of mean relative deviation (MRD). The third part of this thesis studied esterification of lactic acid with 1-butanol using aluminum alginate and hydrolysis of n-butyl lactate into lactic acid using Amberlyst-15 as solid catalyst in a semi-batch reactive distillation column. The results showed that lactic acid conversion and yield of n-butyl lactate of esterification increased with increasing reflux ratio. Catalyst loading did not have significant effect on value of both parameters while increasing the feed flow rate affects decreasing conversion and yield. For the hydrolysis of n-butyl lactate, the conversion and yield were found to increased with increasing catalyst loading while effect of feed flow rate and reflux ratio was similar to that in esterification. In addition, it was found that the purity of lactic acid decreased with increasing pressure, feed flow rate and reflux ratio. In the final part, experimental data from the previous part were use to design the combined counter-current extraction and reactive distillation. The process was simulated and economically evaluated using Aspen HYSYS V10 and Aspen Process Economic Analyzer. Efficiency of two process operations with no-recovery (Process A) and recovery (Precess B) of 1-butanol was studied and compared at annual capacity of 10,000 tons/year with purity of 99.99%w/w lactic acid. The results showed that the overall recovery of lactic acid obtained from Process A and B equals to 91.19 and 96.57% with production cost at 1.67 and 0.90 USD/kg of lactic acid, respectively.
Reactive extraction of lactic acid in a packed column
Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, 1998
Reactive extraction of lactic acid was performed continuously in a packed column. The 0.6 M trioctylamine (TOA)/1-chlorobutane system was used as an extractant. The initial concentration of lactic acid was 10 wt% based on fermentation results. Raschig rings (5 and 7 mm diameter) were used to measure hydrodynamic data. Disperse phase holdup was nearly constant at Va<0.8V~r. It can be seen that the flooding data obtained from this study were consistent with the literature. NTU and HTU were calculated. NTU varied from 1 to 2 and HTU from 96 cm to 44 cm with variation of Vd. The overall mass transfer coefficients of the continuous phase were nearly constant to 8.98x 10-5 mol/cm2s with variation of Vd.
Lactic acid is an important chemical product with wide use in many industrial fields. About a half of world production of lactic acid is made by fermentation of different sugars by means of Lactobacillus sp. strains. Two methods for overcoming the problems, arising from the difference in pH optima for extraction and fermentation in the extractive lactic acid fermentation, are proposed. The first method is based on the use of a mixed extractant composed by tri-n-octylamine (TOA) and Aliquat 336 (methyltrioctylammomium chloride), dissolved in decanol and dodecane. The use of mixed extractant leads to increase in extraction performance in comparison with individual extractants. The extraction efficiency depends on initial acid concentration, pH and Aliquat/TOA ratio as well. While at 5 gl -1 lactic acid the distribution coefficient increase with increasing of Aliquat concentration, for 10 and 25 gl -1 lactic acid the value of distribution coefficient passes through maximum. With increase of acid concentration the position of the maximum shifts to higher TOA concentration. The second method includes the use of tri-n-octylamine (TOA) partially converted to amine hydrochloride. This approach leads to increase in the extraction performance in comparison to the extraction with TOA at high pH values. The extraction efficiency depends on initial lactic acid concentration, pH value, and degree of loading with HCl.
Potential and assessment of lactic acid production and isolation - a review
Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 2017
The majority of commodity plastics is made from petroleum-based chemicals. Lactic acid serves as a monomer for the production of the biodegradable polymer poly lactic acid. This paper provides a review on the state of the art production and isolation process for lactic acid. Problems in the production and isolation have been identified, the relevant results in optimized production are presented in the first part of the paper. In the second part a decision matrix is used as a guideline for the discussion on the state of research in the isolation and purification of lactic acid. Mechanical unit operations, mass transfer unit operations, reactive separation techniques and process combinations are reported in the literature. At the end an economic evaluation of isolation processes such as conventional precipitation, reactive membrane separation, and reactive distillation are presented.
Separation & Purification Reviews, 2016
Lactic acid is commonly used in a wide range of fields such as cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, chemistry, and food. During the last years, its use for new applications such as production of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers, green solvents and oxygenated chemicals have received considerable attention. However, the relatively high production cost of lactic acid hinders many large-scale applications. In order to cheapen lactic acid production processes, it is necessary to develop more efficient methods of separation and purification. This work reviews some promising non-traditional distillation processes that are currently employed for lactic acid recovery, focusing on reactive distillation and molecular distillation. Advances in such distillation-based processes, their drawbacks and concluding remarks are also presented.