Recovery of fermentation salts from dilute aqueous solutions Patent uri icon

abstract

  • Dilute solutions of fermentation sales may be concentrated by extracting water using low-miscibility, low-molecular-weight secondary and tertiary amines, e.g. triethylamine (TEA), diisopropyl amine (DIA), N,N-diethylmethylamine (DEMA), and mixtures thereof. At 30 C.-55 C., which corresponds to typical fermentation temperatures, these low-molecular-weight amines or their mixtures, can extract large amounts of water from dilute aqueous solutions containing fermentation salts. Thus, dilute fermentation salt solutions can be concentrated by selectively removing water. At these low temperatures, the amine phase contains 20-35% water and a much reduced quantity of fermentation salt. When the temperature is raised, water phases out of the amine, allowing the amine to be recycled and reused to extract additional water. Using this approach, about 82.5% of water can be removed from a 3% dilute solution using conventional multistage, countercurrent extraction, thus providing a 15% concentrated fermentation salt solution.

author list (cited authors)

  • Holtzapple, M., Davison, R., & Luettich, T.

complete list of authors

  • Holtzapple, Mark||Davison, Richard||Luettich, Torsten

publication date

  • November 2002