Separation of volatile compounds from fermentation broth by membrane distillation

Abstract

The diluted ethanol solutions and fermentation broth (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) were separated by membrane distillation (MD). Hydrophobic macroporous (pore size 0.2 μm) capillary polypropylene membranes, Accurel PP V8/2 HF and Accurel PP S6/2, were used for these studies. The MD process can be successfully applied to remove the volatile components from the fermentation broth. Besides ethanol, propionic and acetic acids were moved from the broth to the distillate. Therefore, the course of the fermentation carried out in a membrane distillation bioreactor considerably accelerate its rate and increase the efficiency by a selective removal of fermentation products. It was found that the broth subjected to the separation did not affect the hydrophobic properties of the polypropylene membrane assembled in the MD modules.

Behavior of volatile compounds in membrane distillation: The case of carboxylic acids

“…However, acetic acid might also be found in the permeate thus requiring extra purification steps [46,47,50]. Taking part of the knowledge obtained from the parametric study presented above, the The results obtained here indicated that the feed solution properties play a key role towards the selectivity of the separation.…”

“…The production of bioethanol by yeast fermentation usually leads to complex aqueous mixtures containing ethanol and acetic acid, a by-product of the bioreaction [46][47][48][49]. MD has previously been demonstrated to be a suitable technique to extract ethanol the fermentation broths.…”

Membrane Distillation: Principle, Advances, Limitations and Future Prospects in Food Industry

“…The MD process can be successfully applied to remove ethanol and the other volatile metabolites from the fermentation broth (Banat & Al-Shannag, 2000;Gryta, 2001;Gryta & Barancewicz, 2011;Gryta et al, 2000a;Tomaszewska & Bialonczyk, 2011). The fermentation of sugar with Saccharomyces cerevisiae proceeds with the formation of by-products, which tend to inhibit the yeast productivity.…”

An Experimental and Theoretical Study on Separations by Vacuum Membrane Distillation Employing Hollow-Fiber Modules

“…Commercial microporous hydrophobic polypropylene capillary membranes (Accurel ® PP S6/2, Membrana Gmbh, Wuppertal, Germany) were employed in this study. The particular membranes, characterized by satisfactory durability and overall good performance, have been widely used in various literature studies [33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. The characteristics of the membranes as provided by the manufacturer and related literature [40] are summarized in Table A1 of the Appendix A.…”