Bipolar membrane electrodialysis in aqua-ethanol medium: Production of salicylic acid

To overcome the low solubility of salicylic acid (SAH) in the production process by bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED), the water-ethanol mixture as solution medium was introduced in the BMED technique. The results indicated that the highest acid concentration was obtained when ethanol content was 50 v/v%, and the current efficiency reached 982%. Moreover, the BMED stack of BP-C (BP, bipolar membrane; C, cation exchange membrane) configuration was proved as most cost-effective configuration, and using this configuration the highest current efficiency could reach 99.6% and the lowest energy consumption was 2.1 kW h kg(-1). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.