Desalination of L-threonine (THR) fermentation broth by electrodialysis

作者:Wu, Jun; Xu, Chuanqin; Zhang, Chuanyang; Wang, Guosheng; Yan, Yizhang; Wu, Cuiming*; Wu, Yonghui*
来源:Desalination and Water Treatment, 2017, 81: 47-58.
DOI:10.5004/dwt.2017.21044

摘要

L-Threonine (THR) is widely used in the areas of pharmaceutical industry, medicine and food, which can be extracted from THR fermentation broth. The fermentation broth is pretreated by microfiltration and active carbon for decolorization, and then desalted by electrodialysis (ED) to remove salt ions such as Cl-, NH4+, Mg-2(+) and Fe-x(+). The ED performances are adjusted by the operation voltage, membrane type and initial feed pH, which are optimized to be 30 V, polyvinyl alcohol-based hybrid membranes and isoelectric point of 6.16, respectively. The end of desalination can be reached in the shortest time (106 min) when initial feed pH is at the isoelectric point. The highest THR recovery ratio is 86.1% with desalination ratio of 96.9%. The process energy consumption is 4.36 kW h/kg. Hence, the ED process is effective for desalination and recovery of THR. Removal of Cl-and NH4+ (up to 99%) is the most effective, while Mg-2(+) (87.3%) and Fe-x(+) (72.4%) are removed in lesser amount. Membrane fouling occurs after the ED process, which enhances the membrane area resistance from 1.8-2.1 to 2.5-2.7 Omega cm(2).