Recovery of Ammonium Lactate and Removal of Hardness from Fermentation Broth by Nanofiltration

Electro-membrane processes for organic acid recovery

With an increase in the organic acid requirement, the production of organic acids has been increased over the years. To achieve cost-effective production of organic acids, efficient recovery processes are needed. Electro-membrane processes, including electrodialysis (ED), electrometathesis (EMT), electro-ion substitution (EIS), electro-electrodialysis (EED), electrodialysis with bipolar membrane (EDBM), and electrodeionization (EDI), are promising technologies for the recovery of organic acids. In the electro-membrane processes, organic acids are separated from water and other impurities based on the electro-migration of ions through ion-exchange membranes. These processes can recover various types of organic acids from the fermentation broth with high recovery yield and low energy consumption. In addition, the integration of fermentation and the electro-membrane process can improve the acid recovery with lower byproduct concentration and energy consumption.

With an increase in the organic acid requirement, the publication of organic acids recovery has been increased over the years.

Membrane Technologies for Lactic Acid Separation from Fermentation Broths Derived from Renewable Resources

Lactic acid (LA) was produced on a pilot scale using a defined medium with glucose, acid whey, sugar bread and crust bread. The fermentation broths were then subjected to micro- and nanofiltration. Microfiltration efficiently separated the microbial cells. The highest average permeate flow flux was achieved for the defined medium (263.3 L/m²/h) and the lowest for the crust bread-based medium (103.8 L/m²/h). No LA losses were observed during microfiltration of the acid whey, whilst the highest retention of LA was 21.5% for crust bread. Nanofiltration led to high rejections of residual sugars, proteins and ions (sulphate, magnesium, calcium), with a low retention of LA. Unconverted sugar rejections were 100% and 63% for crust bread and sugar bread media respectively, with corresponding LA losses of 22.4% and 2.5%. The membrane retained more than 50% of the ions and proteins present in all media and more than 60% of phosphorus. The average flux was highly affected by the nature of the medium as well as by the final concentration of LA and sugars. The results of this study indicate that micro- and nanofiltration could be industrially employed as primary separation steps for the biotechnologically produced LA.

More value from food waste: Lactic acid and biogas recovery

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the traditional technologies for treating organic solid wastes, but its economic benefit is sometimes questioned. To increase the economic feasibility of the treatment process, the aim of this study was to recover not only biogas from food waste but lactic acid (LA) as well. At first, LA fermentation of food waste (FW) was conducted using an indigenous mixed culture. During the operation, temperature was gradually increased from 35 °C to 55 °C, with the highest performance attained at 50 °C. At 50 °C and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.0 d, LA concentration in the broth was 40 kg LA/m(3), corresponding to a yield of 1.6 mol LA/mol hexoseadded. Pyrosequencing results showed that Lactobacillus (97.6% of the total number of sequences) was the predominant species performing LA fermentation of FW. The fermented broth was then centrifuged and LA was extracted from the supernatant by the combined process of nanofiltration and water-splitting electrodialysis. The process could recover highly purified LA by removing 85% of mineral ions such as Na(+), K(+), Mg(2+), and Ca(2+) and 90% of residual carbohydrates. Meanwhile, the solid residue remained after centrifugation was further fermented to biogas by AD. At HRT 40 d (organic loading rate of 7 kg COD/m(3)/d), the highest volumetric biogas production rate of 3.5 m(3)/m(3)/d was achieved with a CH4 yield of 0.25 m(3) CH4/kg COD. The mass flow showed that 47 kg of LA and 54 m(3) of biogas could be recovered by the developed process from 1 ton of FW with COD removal efficiency of 70%. These products have a higher economic value 60 USD/ton FW compared to that of conventional AD (27 USD/ton FW).

Nanofiltration, bipolar electrodialysis and reactive extraction hybrid system for separation of fumaric acid from fermentation broth

A novel approach based on a hybrid system allowing nanofiltration, bipolar electrodialysis and reactive extraction, was proposed to remove fumaric acid from fermentation broth left after bioconversion of glycerol. The fumaric salts can be concentrated in the nanofiltration process to a high yield (80-95% depending on pressure), fumaric acid can be selectively separated from other fermentation components, as well as sodium fumarate can be conversed into the acid form in bipolar electrodialysis process (stack consists of bipolar and anion-exchange membranes). Reactive extraction with quaternary ammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) or alkylphosphine oxides (Cyanex 923) solutions (yield between 60% and 98%) was applied as the final step for fumaric acid recovery from aqueous streams after the membrane techniques. The hybrid system permitting nanofiltration, bipolar electrodialysis and reactive extraction was found effective for recovery of fumaric acid from the fermentation broth.