Exploring the potential of recovering 1-butanol from aqueous solutions by liquid demixing upon addition of carbohydrates or salts
✍ Scribed by Arjan Oudshoorn; Marjolein C. F. M. Peters; Luuk A. M. van der Wielen; Adrie J. J. Straathof
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 112 KB
- Volume
- 86
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0268-2575
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✦ Synopsis
BACKGROUND: Fermentative production of 1-butanol yields dilute aqueous solutions. Recovery of the butanol from these solutions is most commonly performed by energy-intensive distillation. This work investigated the liquid-liquid (L-L) phase behavior of mixtures of butanol and water to explore the potential of using L-L phase separation as a recovery possibility for 1butanol. The phase behavior is preferably influenced by compounds already present in the fermentation, such as carbohydrates and salts.
RESULTS:
The L-L phase equilibria of butanol and water were determined in the presence of glucose, fructose, sucrose, NaCl, LiCl and CaCl 2 . The aqueous and organic phase split is more pronounced in the presence of salts than in the presence of carbohydrates. Demixing is achieved with about 0.3 kg salt kg -1 aqueous phase containing 40 g of butanol.
CONCLUSION: Operation of L-L based recovery using salts or carbohydrates requires extreme concentrations of those compounds. For feed material containing 40 g kg -1 butanol, the tested carbohydrates do not influence the phase equilibria sufficiently to allow butanol separation. Fermentative butanol concentrations up to 70 g kg -1 are required to create an effective L-L phase split. The remaining residual aqueous carbohydrate solution might be used as feed for a following fermentation.