Clean post-processing of 2-amino-1-propanol sulphate by bipolar membrane electrodialysis for industrial processing of 2-amino-1-propanol

2-Amino-1-propanol (AMP) is a key intermediate compound in the production of antibiotics, with increasing demand in industry. In this study, we propose a newly designed bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED) system with a novel three-compartment configuration for the processing of AMP from the AMP sulphate solution. The operational parameters were investigated for optimizing the performance of this novel BMED stack, compared to the traditional two-compartment BMED stack in the pilot scale experiment. The experimental results indicate that this novel type of BMED stack offers a better performance for AMP processing than the conventional two-compartment BMED stack. The optimum performance was observed at the current density ranging from 40 to 60 mA cm(-2) and a spacer thickness of 0.70 mm. The corresponding current efficiency and energy consumption reached up to 53.4% and 3.135 kWh kg(-1), respectively. The two-compartment BMED stack was found to have a low current efficiency (39.8%) and a high energy consumption (3.864 kWh kg(-1)). Pilot-scale experiments for an industrial application of this novel BMED stack have been applied, demonstrating that the BMED process is feasible and economically alternative for AMP purification in the industry. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.