Bio-based succinic acid recovery by ion exchange resins integrated with nanofiltration/reverse osmosis preceded crystallization

Abstract

Succinic acid is a key platform chemical for production of various products such as biodegradable polymers, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and foods. In the present study, bio-based succinic acid was recovered through two processes. Process I consisted of chro-matographic separation with anionic exchange resin followed by direct crystallization, whereas process II sequentially consisted of cationic exchanger, activated carbon, NF/RO membrane, vacuum distillation, and crystallization. The highest chromatographic separa-tion efficiency for succinic acid by Amberlite IRA900 Cl column was calculated as 69.3% at flow rate of 0.42 BV/h. Rejection of succinic aid (SA), lactic acid (LA), formic acid (FA) and acetic acid (AC) by NF90 membrane was 53.1, 51.8, 46.6 and 39.8%, respectively at pH less than 2. However, at pH 6.8 the respective rejections increased to 96.8, 90.6, 71.3 and 70.5%. Double pass with BW30 or HP reverse osmosis membranes achieved retention of SA, LA, FA and AC of 95.9%, 95.8%, 65.4% and 46.9%, respectively. Analysis of generated SA crystals by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) showed the crys-tallinity of recovered SA as conformable to standard grade crytsals. The purity of generated succinic acid crystals was recorded as 98.5% and 96.7% for process I and process II, respec-tively. The calculated succinic acid yield was 78% for process I and 65% for process II. Herein, we demonstrated two alternative systems for bio-based succinic acid recovery, which will set a stage for research in efficient downstream purification of SA. (c) 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.