Reactive extraction of bio‐based 3‐hydroxypropionic acid assisted by hollow‐fiber membrane contactor using <scp>TOA</scp> and Aliquat 336 in <i>n</i>‐decanol

Abstract

Abstract BACKGROUND Reactive liquid–liquid extraction is a promising technique for the direct recovery of carboxylic acids from bioconversion media. This work focused on the optimization of 3‐hydroxypropionic acid (3‐ HP ) reactive extraction assisted by hollow‐fiber membrane contactor ( HFMC ), using tri‐ n ‐octylamine ( TOA ) and Aliquat 336 as extractants in n ‐decanol, and on its practical application for the recovery of 3‐ HP obtained from glycerol bioconversion by Lactobacillus reuteri . RESULTS The results underlined the influence of the initial pH and 3‐ HP concentration of the aqueous medium and the impact of extractant phase composition on the extraction performances. The highest distribution coefficient of 3‐ HP ( K D = 13.0) was observed at pH = 3 with 10% v/v TOA mixed with 10% v/v Aliquat 336 in n ‐decanol. This study showed that the acid concentration and the ratio of amines used between TOA and Aliquat 336 in n ‐decanol did not have a great impact on the K D during 3‐ HP reactive extraction, whereas it had an influence on the extraction kinetics. Moreover, 3‐ HP reactive extraction assisted by HFMC from real bioconversion broth with glycerol as the substrate was shown to be feasible, with the same order of magnitude of extraction kinetics but with a lower K D compared with reactive extraction using model broth. CONCLUSIONS 3‐ HP was predominantly extracted from the bioconversion broth, confirming the high selectivity of the extraction process studied and the high potential of this approach applied to the biotechnological production of 3‐ HP . © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry