Production and extraction of medium chain carboxylic acids at a semi-pilot scale

Microbial chain elongation enables the conversion of organic wastes and agroindustrial sidestreams into medium chain carboxylic acids (MCCAs), with application in the production of plasticizers, personal care products, functional feed additives, and fuels. This work describes the up-scaling of the production of MCCAs from thin stillage, and their separation into an oil at kilogram scale with a MCCA content of more than 72%. The chain elongation occurred at a maximum rate of 1.7 +/- 0.6 g MCCA L-1 d(-1) without the use of ethanol as electron donor, even when it was supplied. Two in-line extraction trains are compared: (1) solvent extraction based on pertraction followed by electrochemical phase separation of the acids through a 2-compartment membrane electrolysis (ME) cell, and (2) direct electrochemical extraction from the fermentation broth using a 3-compartment ME cell. Using the first treatment train, n-caproic acid was extracted at an efficiency of 73%. The decrease in the fermentation pH from 5.5 to 5.0 enabled doubling the MCCA and oil production rate without a concomitant increase in NaOH dosage for pH stabilization. The selectivity brought about by pertraction and its capacity to up-concentrate MCCAs in an alkaline-pH extract enabled a more efficient use of the electricity for ME (as low as 6.2 kWh kg(-1) oil) when compared to a period when ME was applied directly to the filtered fermentation broth (160 kWh kg(-1) oil). The 3-compartment ME cell was able to phase separate oil extracting directly from the fermentation broth but it was not selective for longer-chain carboxylic acids due to coextraction of short chain carboxylic acids and inorganic anions