ALKANOL REMOVAL FROM THE APOLAR PHASE OF A 2-LIQUID PHASE BIOCONVERSION SYSTEM - PART 1 - COMPARISON OF A LESS VOLATILE AND A MORE VOLATILEIN-SITU EXTRACTION SOLVENT FOR THE SEPARATION OF 1-OCTANOL BY DISTILLATION
Rg. Mathys et al., ALKANOL REMOVAL FROM THE APOLAR PHASE OF A 2-LIQUID PHASE BIOCONVERSION SYSTEM - PART 1 - COMPARISON OF A LESS VOLATILE AND A MORE VOLATILEIN-SITU EXTRACTION SOLVENT FOR THE SEPARATION OF 1-OCTANOL BY DISTILLATION, Journal of chemical technology and biotechnology, 71(4), 1998, pp. 315-325
Biocatalytic systems can be used for the regio-and stereospecific synt
hesis of oxidized alkanes and aromatic compounds, such as aliphatic an
d aromatic alcohols, aldehydes and epoxides. These reactions are typic
ally carried out in two-liquid phase media. The biocatalyst is usually
a natural microorganism, often a Pseudomonas, or a genetically altere
d host, a Pseudomonas or E. coli recombinant typically, which grows in
the aqueous phase, while the substrate and product are present in an
organic bulk phase. Oxidation products formed in these systems must be
purified after separation of the two liquid phases. We have evaluated
the performance of distillation for the separation of the product 1-o
ctanol by examining a more volatile (octane) and a less volatile (hexa
decene) in-situ extraction system. The separation performance of the t
wo systems has been compared based on recovery efficiency, energy cost
and number of required process units. Results showed that a less vola
tile extractant compared favorably in terms of number of product separ
ation unit steps, decreased operating and energy cost to the use of a
more volatile extraction solvent. In addition, a major disadvantage of
the more volatile in-situ extraction process was the coloring of the
bottom product of the first distillation step, in which the product is
contained in this case. Such modifications can be implemented into an
upstream and downstream process of bioconversions to improve the over
all system and to reduce downstream processing cost. (C) 1998 SCI.