Abstract
The downstream processing of biocatalytically produced (di–)carboxylic acids still is a challenging task. One innovative approach, demonstrating industrial applicability, applies an initial reactive extraction (RE) using hydrophobic amine extractants into an organic solvent, followed by a subsequent back-extraction (BE) using water soluble amine extractants into a (fresh) aqueous solution. Although showing promising results in terms of yield and selectivity, state-of-the-art amine extractant selection is only based on trial-and-error screening approaches. Thus, to enable an optimized process design and thereby optimized downstream processing, a deeper understanding of RE and BE on a molecular level is crucial.Within this work, we successfully applied an experimental setup incorporating online Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to elucidate influencing factors on RE and BE as well as to provide a guideline for an optimized selection of amine extractants. Investigations on the kinetics of complex formation between itaconic acid (IA) and tri-n-octylamine (TNOA) in 1-decanol revealed the reaction order to be zero in TNOA, indicating that mass transfer is the rate limiting step in RE. Reaction equilibrium investigations revealed that for all IA - amine extractants combinations in 1-decanol reaction equilibrium was almost completely on the product (complex) side. The strength of the acid-extractant complexes was evaluated using FTIR experiments, providing a novel approach / methodology to efficiently select an optimal combination of amine extractants for RE and BE. Applying the novel online FTIR spectroscopy setup allowed to monitor a complete process sequence of RE and BE of IA with selected amine extractants, validating the proposed guidelines for an optimized selection of amine extractants. The results of this work will facilitate the definition of appropriate RE and BE systems for biocatalytically produced (di–)carboxylic acids.
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