Product isolation and purification of conversion products

Background and Objective

Depending on the type of the raw material, product properties, production scale and especially the product application we elect methods for product enrichment, product isolation and purification. We develope Both in-situ and ex-situ methods for isolation and purification of conversion products.

Approach

To obtain conversion products from renewable resources, the appropriate choice of methods for efficient downstream processing is essential. The primary purification (e.g., cell harvesting, biomass separation, digestion, clarification) is followed by product enrichment (e.g., evapration, precipitation, extraction, adsorption) as well as product isolation and purification (e.g., chromatography), to obtain after product finishing (e.g., filtration, precipitation) the desired product in the desired degree of purity. Depending on the product application the desired purity degree is essential for the choice of separation techniques for downstream processing.The broth, including the conversion product, of chemical and biotechnological conversion of renewable resources consist up to 80-100% of water. Therefore, we examine the simultaneous reaction and separation of conversion products in the course of process intensification.

Our Research Questions

Efficient and cost-effective methods for the product isolation and purification of the conversion products from renewable resources are developed to yield competitive bio-based chemicals.

Preliminary Results

For the product isolation and purification of conversion products like itaconic acid and 2,3-butanediol from renewable resources, physical, thermal and chemical separation techniques have been applied. Corresponding basic processes such as crystallization, electrodialysis, liquid-liquid extraction and pervaporation were applied, optimized and the conversion products were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed using up to date analytic techniques.