Concurrent Alcohol Recovery and Fermentation Using Pass-Through Distillation

McGregorIan,; FurlongSteve,

doi:10.1089/ind.2017.29081.imc

Cited by 8 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Part of the fermentation broth, containing valuable volatile products, is firstly evaporated from the rest of the feed stream Frontiers in Energy Research frontiersin.org and temperature, while condensation can be performed at higher pressure and temperature. Consequently, the temperature limit for heat-sensitive components will not be exceeded and cheaper cooling utilities can be used (McGregor and Furlong, 2017). The operating conditions can be kept appropriate for the microorganisms since they are separated during the first evaporation step and never contact the absorption fluid.…”

Section: Methodology For Designing Purification Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The major limitation for wide-spread industrial production of volatile biochemicals by fermentation is the relatively low concentrations of products that can be achieved due to the toxic effect these chemicals often have on the microorganisms (McGregor and Furlong, 2017). When highly dilute aqueous streams are obtained, purification in a cost-and energy-efficient way is challenging.…”

Section: Challenges For Purification Of Volatile Fermentation Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, significant improvement is needed to make technologies for production of biofuels and biochemicals from renewable sources competitive with fossil carbon based processes (Usmani et al, 2021). The main challenge for industrial production of volatile biochemicals (liquid bioproducts with boiling points either lower or slightly higher than that of water) is the limit in the concentration that can be reached due to the toxic effects product have on cells (McGregor and Furlong, 2017). Therefore, large bioreactors are needed to achieve an industrially relevant production capacity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Process systems engineering perspectives on eco-efficient downstream processing of volatile biochemicals from fermentation

Janković,

Straathof,

Kiss

2024

Front. Energy Res.

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Increasing concerns over environmental pollution, climate change and energy security are driving a necessary transition from fossil carbon sources to more sustainable alternatives. Due to lower environmental impact, biochemicals are rapidly gaining significance as a potential renewable solution, particularly of interest in Europe. In this context, process systems engineering (PSE) helps with the decision-making at multiple scales and levels, aiming for optimum use of (renewable) resources. Fermentation using waste biomass or industrial off-gases is a promising way for the production of these products. However, due to the inhibitory effects or low substrate concentrations, relatively low product concentrations can be obtained. Consequently, significant improvements in downstream processing are needed to increase the competitiveness of the overall bioprocesses. This paper supports sustainable development by providing new PSE perspectives on the purification of volatile bioproducts from dilute fermentation broths. Since purification significantly contributes to the total cost of biochemical production processes (20%–40% of the total cost), enhancing this part may substantially improve the competitiveness of the overall bioprocesses. The highly advanced downstream process offers the possibility of recovering high-purity products while enhancing the fermentation step by continuously removing inhibitory products, and recycling microorganisms with most of the present water. Besides higher productivity, the upstream process can be greatly improved by avoiding loss of biomass, enabling closed-loop operation and decreasing the need for fresh water. Applying heat pumping, heat integration and other methods of process intensification (PI) can drastically reduce energy requirements and CO2 emissions. Additionally, the opportunity to use renewable electricity instead of conventional fossil energy presents a significant step toward (green) electrification and decarbonization of the chemical industry.

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Section: Methodology For Designing Purification Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Challenges For Purification Of Volatile Fermentation Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Process systems engineering perspectives on eco-efficient downstream processing of volatile biochemicals from fermentation

Janković,

Straathof,

Kiss

2024

Front. Energy Res.

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“…After SAM, the diluted brine is regenerated and recycled in a continuous circuit. 32 Previously absorbed isopropanol and acetone, with some water, are desorbed from the diluted stream and then condensed. Two alternative approaches were considered for desorption and condensation: heat-pump (vapor recompression) assisted desorption and multi-effect distillation.…”

Section: Pass-through Distillationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The working principle of PTD is decoupling of evaporation and condensation by using an absorption-desorption loop with concentrated lithium bromide (LiBr) solution as absorbent fluid. 31,32 PTD consists of four steps: evaporation, absorption, desorption and condensation. First, part of the liquid feed stream is evaporated, and the formed vapor is absorbed using the absorbent fluid.…”

Section: Pass-through Distillationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced purification of isopropanol and acetone from syngas fermentation

Janković,

Straathof,

Kiss

2023

J of Chemical Tech & Biotech

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BACKGROUNDIsopropanol and acetone production by syngas fermentation is a promising alternative to conventional fossil carbon‐dependent production. However, this alternative technology has not yet been scaled up to an industrial level owing to the relatively low product concentrations (about 5 wt% in total). This original research aims to develop cost‐effective and energy‐efficient processes for the recovery of isopropanol and acetone from highly dilute fermentation broth (>94 wt% water) for large‐scale production (about 100 ktIPA+AC y−1).RESULTSVacuum distillation and pass‐through distillation enhanced with heat pumps or multi‐effect distillation were efficiently coupled with regular atmospheric distillation and extractive distillation in several innovative intensified downstream processes. Over 99.2% of isopropanol and 100% of acetone were recovered as high‐purity end‐products (>99.8 wt%). Advanced heat pumping (mechanical vapor recompression) and heat integration techniques were implemented to decrease total annual costs (0.109–0.137 USD kgIPA+AC−1), reduce energy requirements (1.348–2.043 kWth h kgIPA+AC−1) and lower CO2 emissions (0.067–0.191 kgCO2 kgIPA+AC−1), resulting in highly competitive recovery processes.CONCLUSIONThe proposed three novel isopropanol and acetone recovery processes from dilute broth significantly contribute to the expansion of sustainable industrial fermentation. Furthermore, this original research is the first one to develop novel pass‐through distillation technology for the complex isopropanol–acetone–water system. All the designed processes are highly economically competitive and environmentally viable. In addition to recovering efficiently both isopropanol and acetone, the designed downstream processes offer the possibility to enhance the fermentation process by recycling all the present microorganisms and reducing fresh‐water requirements. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

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A perspective on downstream processing performance for recovery of bioalcohols

Janković,

Straathof,

Kiss

2024

J of Chemical Tech & Biotech

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Even though industrial biotechnology is successfully used for the production of some chemicals, for many other chemicals it is not yet competitive with conventional petrochemical production. Usually, fermentation as well as downstream processing requires improvement. Downstream processing has to deal with low product concentrations, microorganisms, impurities and thermodynamic constraints (e.g., azeotropes), which often makes it very challenging and expensive, especially on a large scale. However, downstream processing of biochemicals has not attracted as much attention as upstream fermentation processes. In that context, this perspective paper offers a lightly referenced scholarly opinion about the downstream processing performance of different bioalcohols after fermentation. Due to the stronger toxicity effects on microbes, the achievable concentrations of monohydric aliphatic alcohols in the fermentation broth decrease with the increasing chain length. Specifically, the concentrations used here are 6.14, 5.00, 1.61 and 0.24 wt% of ethanol, isopropanol, isobutanol and hexanol, respectively. More dilute fermentation broths lead to more complex recovery processes. According to our previous work, the total purification costs increase from 0.080 USD kg−1 for ethanol, 0.109 USD kg−1 for isopropanol and 0.161 USD kg−1 for isobutanol to 0.529 USD kg−1 for hexanol. A similar trend is noticeable for the energy usage (0.960, 1.348, 2.018 and 3.069 kWthh kg−1, respectively) and the related CO2 emissions (0.164, 0.221, 0.449 and 0.555 kgCO2 kg−1, respectively). This work shows that advanced separation and purification based on process intensification principles are crucial for overall efficient production processes. The achievable product concentration in the fermentation broth – and not so much the alcohol chain length – has the biggest influence on the performance of downstream processing. Therefore, simultaneous development of both upstream and downstream processing is necessary to ensure the competitiveness and viability of industrial fermentation processes. © 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

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Concurrent Alcohol Recovery and Fermentation Using Pass-Through Distillation

Cited by 8 publications

References 16 publications

Process systems engineering perspectives on eco-efficient downstream processing of volatile biochemicals from fermentation

Process systems engineering perspectives on eco-efficient downstream processing of volatile biochemicals from fermentation

Advanced purification of isopropanol and acetone from syngas fermentation

A perspective on downstream processing performance for recovery of bioalcohols

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