Abstract
About 28 billion lbs of liquid whey produced from cheese manufacture are being wasted in the US. An anaerobic fermentation process is developed to produce calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) from whey permeate. CMA can be used to replace salt as a noncorrosive road deicer. A co-culture consisting of homolactic and homoacetic bacteria was used to convert whey lactose to lactate and then to acetate in continuous, immobilized cell bioreactors. The acetate yield from lactose was ∼ 95% ( w/ w), and the final concentration of acetic acid obtained from this homofermentative process was 4%. The acetic acid produced from fermentation can be readily recovered by solvent extraction with a tertiary amine and reacted with dolomitic lime (CA/MgO) to form a concentrated (>25%) CMA solution. This CMA solution can then be dried to form the granular CMA deicer. About 40 tons CMA can be produced from a plant processing 1.5 million lbs whey permeate per day, at a cost of $215/ton. The total capital investment is estimated at ∼ 7 million dollars, with a return rate of less than 1.5 years at the current market price of $600/ton.
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