Investigations on Reactive Extraction of Butyric Acid Using Tri-n-Octyl Amine in Various Biodiesels

Abstract

Butyric acid is a monocarboxylic acid which can be produced economically by fermentation from green feedstock. As the recovery of butyric acid from dilute fermentation broth is a challenge and hence it needs to develop a competitive downstream recovery process. Butyric acid finds a wide range of applications in pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics and power industries. Reactive extraction is one of the most promising and accessible methods which can be used as first separation step for recovery of butyric acid from dilute wastewater stream or fermentation broth. In present study, the physical and reactive extraction of butyric acid using tri-n-octylamine (TOA) in biodiesel made from sesame oil, rice bran oil, karanja oil and sunflower oil were studied at 298K and comparatively found the reactive extraction as more efficient. The Partition coefficient P, dimerization constant D and the distribution coefficient KD were obtained in the physical extraction study. In reactive extraction, the results were obtained in terms of distribution coefficient KD, loading ratio O and the degree of extraction E%.