Microbial De-emulsification:  A Highly Efficient Procedure for the Extractive Workup of Whole-Cell Biotransformations

Abstract

Formation of stable emulsions with the organic solvent is a general complication in the extractive workup of aqueous wholecell biotransformations. This hold-up has been overcome by biocatalytic lysis of emulsifying agents present in the medium through addition of living microorganisms. Of these, Bacillus subtilis and Rhodococcus erythropolis exhibited the most powerful de-emulsifying activity. As exemplified by microbial treatment of cell-free biotransformation media of Saccharomyces cereWisiae and Lactobacillus kefiri, phase separation time (t p ) was drastically reduced from one week to 20 s without significantly affecting product integrity. This practicable readyto-use method is appropriate to both fungal and bacterial biocatalysts. The highly efficient de-emulsification power and the considerably short phase separation time of this technique allow for cost-effective continuous extractions on a large-scale, for example with mixer-settler units.

Transferring of red Monascus pigments from nonionic surfactant to hydrophobic ionic liquid by novel microemulsion extraction

“…Based on the character of surfactant, degradable surfactant can be removed before the further recovery of product, such as biodegradation of bio-surfactant for de-emulsification during microbial fermentation [26]. Based on the character of solute, low boiling point product can be easily recovered by evaporation due to the high boiling point of most surfactants [27,28].…”

Efficient phase separation and product recovery in organic‐aqueous bioprocessing using supercritical carbon dioxide

“…In terms of phase separation, different strategies for the workup of biphasic biocatalytic reaction mixtures have been described in literature (Bühler and Schmid, 2004; Bühler et al, 2006; Leon et al, 1998; Rosenberg and Ron, 1997), but none of them led to a complete and economically feasible phase separation. The proposed procedures mostly suggest one step to destabilize the emulsion (e.g., by thermal or chemical treatment) (Kollmer, 1997; Leppchen et al, 2006) followed by a centrifugation step allowing the recovery of about 80% of the organic phase. Beside approaches using centrifugation as the method of choice, filtration of the emulsion has also been considered.…”

“…For the workup of biphasic biotransformation mixtures, the use of hydrolases as emulsion breaker is the only strategy enabling a phase separation efficiency comparable to the CO 2 ‐based procedure (Leppchen et al, 2006). However, the required amount of hydrolases was high and thus the process itself expensive, which questions the applicability of this strategy on industrial scale.…”

“…To be industrially feasible, phase separation should occur within minutes in a simple mixer settler unit (Leppchen et al, 2006). Ideally, additives should simplify further product purification.…”

Acreditation Certificate Acreditation No. 21/E/KPT/2018 Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item Email this article Email the author About The Authors Ainun Ramadhani Tri Wahyuni ORCID iD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4071-3406 Fisheries and Marine Science Faculty, Brawijaya University Indonesia Endang Yuli Herawati Fisheries and Marine Science Faculty, Brawijaya University Indonesia Andi Kurniawan ORCID iD Fisheries and Marine Science Faculty, Brawijaya University Indonesia Ab

“…So, the accumulation of hydrocarbon waste in zooplankton can move to predatory fish. And so, on if the fish is eaten by larger fish, other marine animals and will even reach humans (Leppchen et al, 2006).…”