Recovery of a Succinic, Formic, and Acetic Acid Mixture from a Model Fermentation Broth by Simulated Moving Bed Adsorption with Methanol as a Desorbent

This work aims to study the recovery of succinic acid, formic acid, and acetic acid from a model fermentation broth by adsorption using a commercial polyvinylpyridine (PVP) resin (Reillex 425), with methanol as the desorbent. A theoretical model has been developed to describe the adsorption/desorption dynamics of succinic acid/water, formic acid/water, and succinic acid/formic acid/acetic acid/glucose/methanol/water mixtures in a fixed bed of commercial resin. The model has been used to design and optimize a simulated moving bed process to recover acids from a model fermentation broth using the triangle theory and volume separation method. It is possible to recover 95% of the acids, with 99.9% purity, with a productivity of 24.737 kg m(solid)(-3) h(-1) and a desorbent consumption of 0.0901 m(3) kg(-1). The acids are obtained free of water-soluble impurities and water, mixed with methanol, and can be subsequently separated or used directly in esterification processes with methanol.

Automated summary

This study successfully recovered succinic acid, formic acid, and acetic acid from a model fermentation broth using a commercial resin and methanol. A theoretical model was developed to design and optimize a simulated moving bed process, achieving efficient and pure recovery of these acids.