Bioresource Technology, Vol.280, 378-386, 2019
Membrane assisted continuous production of solvents with integrated solvent removal using liquid-liquid extraction
The aim of this work was to demonstrate an industrially relevant pilot scale integrated process to produce butanol and other solvents from lignocellulosic sugars produced with AVAP (R) biomass fractionation technology from southern pine wood. The concentrated sugars were concurrently fermented using genetically engineered Clostridium acetobutylicum to n-butanol, acetone, isopropanol and ethanol in continuous membrane assisted cell recycle fermentation with steady-state solvent productivity exceeding 10 g/L/h. The solvents from the cell free permeate were recovered with extractant of butyl butyrate in a continuous liquid-liquid extraction column and aqueous product (raffinate) along with unused sugars, nutrients, and metabolic intermediates were recycled back to the fermentors. The total solvent yield approached 0.30 g/g sugars.
Keywords:Continuous butanol fermentation;Butyl butyrate extraction;High cell density culture;Membrane recycle fermentor;Pine sugars