Separation in Biorefineries by Liquid Phase Adsorption: Itaconic Acid as Case Study

Abstract

In biorefinery processes often the downstream processing is the technological bottleneck for an overall high efficiency. On the basis of recent developments, the selective liquid phase adsorption applying highly hydrophobic porous materials opened up new opportunities for process development. In this contribution, the efficiency of selective liquid phase adsorption is demonstrated for the separation and purification of itaconic acid from aqueous solutions for the first time. A wide range of different adsorbents was screened, revealing the surface polarity as well as textural properties as critical parameters for their performance. Adsorption from mixed solutions of itaconic acid and glucose exhibited extraordinary high selectivities for adsorbents with highly hydrophobic surfaces, especially certain activated carbons and hyper-cross-linked polymers. Evaluation of the pH dependence showed that the respective molecular species of itaconic acid/itaconate has a major impact on the adsorption performance. Additionally, experiments on a continuously operated fixedbed adsorber were carried out, and the desorption behavior was evaluated. Overall, the technical feasibility of the selective adsorptive removal of itaconic acid from aqueous solutions with hydrophobic adsorbents is demonstrated as a model system for an alternative technology to conventional separation strategies in biorefinery concepts.

Towards Sustainable Lactic Acid Production: Avoiding Gypsum as a Byproduct by using Selective Liquid‐Phase Adsorption

“…It exhibited an uptake of 0.87 mmol g À1 ,aq uite significant amount compared with the LA uptake. For HCP, the glucoseu ptake was expected to be low,a ss hown before for the competitive adsorption of itaconic acida nd glucose, [2] because the material consists only of aromatic building blocks, resulting in itsv ery hydrophobic nature.…”

“…Feasible adsorbents exhibit a low surface polarity and are highly hydrophobic. Besides commercially available adsorbents, particularly tailored porous polymers with a highly hydrophobic surface have exhibited excellent performance in the liquid‐phase adsorption of biogenic compounds …”

“…Its applicationi se specially suitable for the development and improvement of biorefineries because energy-intensive thermal separation is often not an option. Physical adsorption based on weak van der Waals interactions has already been successfully provenf or different biogenic platform chemicals such as itaconic acid, [2] 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, [3,4] and levulinic acid. [5] Typical commercially availablea dsorbentsa re porousm aterials such as zeolites or activatedc arbons.…”

Sustainable Carbon Sources and Renewable Energy: Challenges and Opportunities at the Interface of Catalysis and Reaction Engineering

“…Another example covers the selective adsorption of itaconic acid both from pure aqueous glucose containing solution as well as from real fermentation broths . A broad adsorbent screening confirmed the need for high specific surface areas in combination with highly hydrophobic surfaces.…”

New approaches for itaconic acid production: bottlenecks and possible remedies

“…Kaur et al [64] purified IA by solvent extraction using n-butanol. In a modified approach, Schute et al [95] investigated selective recovery of IA from aqueous solution by liquid phase adsorption on hydrophobic adsorbents such as the hyper-cross-linked polymers. They reported that temperature had an insignificant effect on adsorption and the operation could be carried out over a broad temperature range, whereas selectivity decreased with increasing pH.…”