Acetone from fermentation

Figure 9.2 Initial flowsheet involving alternative technologies and design configurations for both functional parts removal of water content and production of butanol, ethanol, and acetone from fermentation broth of grains.

Other Processes. Isopropyl alcohol can be prepared by the Hquid-phase oxidation of propane (118). It is produced iacidentaHy by the reductive condensation of acetone, and is pardy recovered from fermentation (119). Large-scale commercial biological production of isopropyl alcohol from carbohydrate raw materials has also been studied (120—123). 

Citric acid separation from fermentation broth employs the full allotment of Sorbex beds in addition to the four basic Sorbex zones. The process utilizes a resin instead of a zeolite based adsorbent. The resin is a nonionic cross-linked polystyrene polyvinyl benzene formulation. Operating temperatures for this process are sufficient to overcome diffusion limitations with a corresponding operating pressure to maintain liquid-phase operation. The desorbent consists of water blended with acetone. Subsequent processing steps remove the desorbent from the desired extract product citric acid. 

In 1904, Schardinger discovered the bacteriological formation of acetone from carbohydrates, and Pringsheim, in the years 1905-1909, described the reduction of carbohydrates to isopropyl alcohol and n-butyl alcohol. The subsequent work of Fernbach and Weizmann led to the development of an industry for the production of these substances by the fermentation of carbohydrates. ... 

Weizmann discovered a process to produce butyl alcohol and acetone from the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum in 1914. With England s urgent demand for acetone, Winston Churchill (1874-1965) enlisted Weizmann to develop the Weizmann process for acetone production on an industrial scale. Large industrial plants were established in Canada, India, and the United States to provide the allies with acetone for munitions. Weizmann, who is considered the father of industrial fermentation, obtained significant status from his war contributions and used this to further his political mission of establishing a Jewish homeland. Weizmann was a leader of the Zionist movement and campaigned aggressively until the nation of Israel was established in 1948. He was the first president of Israel. 

Isopropyl alcohol production in 1950 exceeded 800,000,000 pounds, all made from petroleum. This alcohol is used mainly as a raw material for the production of acetone and also as a solvent. Acetone is made by the catalytic high temperature dehydrogenation or air oxidation of isopropyl alcohol. A much smaller part of the total acetone supply comes from fermentation and from hydrocarbon oxidation. Like isopropyl alcohol, part of the consumption is for solvent uses, but most serves as a raw material for other oxygenated compounds. 

Separation of citric acid from fermentation broth Separation of lactic acid from fermentation broth Production of acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE) from potato wastes Separation of long-chain unsaturated fatty acids... 

Fermentation processes produce a wide range of chemicals that complement the various chemicals produced by nonfermentation routes. For example, alcohol, acetone, butyl alcohol, and acetic acid are produced by fermentation as well as by synthetic routes. Almost all the major antibiotics are obtained from fermentation processes. 

Processes for production of ethanol and acetone-butanol-ethanol mixture from fermentation products in membrane contactor devices were presented in Refs. [88,89]. Recovery of butanol from fermentation was reported in Ref. [90]. Use of composite membrane in a membrane reactor to separate and recover valuable biotechnology products was discussed in Refs. [91,92]. A case study on using membrane contactor modules to extract small molecular weight compounds of interest to pharmaceutical industry was shown in Ref. [93]. Extraction of protein and separation of racemic protein mixtures were discussed in Refs. [94,95]. Extractions of ethanol and lactic acid by membrane solvent extraction are reported in Refs. [96,97]. A membrane-based solvent extraction and stripping process was discussed in Ref. [98] for recovery of Phenylalanine. Extraction of aroma compounds from aqueous feed solutions into sunflower oil was investigated in Ref. [99]. 

Recovery of acetone and butanediol from fermentation broth... 

Can we apply any of this information from non-enzymatic catalysis to decarboxylating enzymes Some decarboxylases do form Schiff bases with their substrates, and some are dependent on metal ions. The acetone-forming fermentation of Clostridium acetobutylicum requires large amounts of acetoacetate decarboxylase (Eq. 13-44). 

Fermentation has been used in the production of foods and drinks since the days of antiquity. A recent application is the large-scale production of yogurt. Before the advent of cheap petroleum, a variety of other commodity chemicals were produced by fermentation. Acetone and n-butyl alcohol were produced by Clostridium aceto-butylicum.17 Ethanol, which was all made from fermentation, is now made in part by the hydration of ethylene. Acetic acid is now made largely by the carbonylation of methanol (9.2) using a rhodium catalyst in the presence of iodide ion.18... 

The product formed as the result of the polymerization of butadiene itself resembles rubber closely in properties, and it has been proposed to use it as a substitute. The hydrocarbon is formed from dichlorobutane, CH2CICH2CH2CH2CI, which can be prepared from i-butyl alcohol, CH3CH2CH2CH2OH. During the recent war a process which was developed for making acetone by fermenting grain, yielded large quantities of butyl alcohol as a by-product (72). The reaction furnishes a cheap supply of these two products, which can be converted into substances with the properties of rubber. 

Shahani and associates (39, 49, 56-57) have studied the production of Acidophilin and Bulgarican by L. acidophilus DDS 1 and L. bulgarlcus DDS 14, respectively. These antibiotics were isolated from fermented milk using a combination of methanol and acetone extraction coupled with silica gel and Sephadex chromatography. Different culture strains were found to vary greatly in their production of antibacterial compounds and factors such as incubation medium, pH, temperature and had a pronounced effect on antibiotic production. Milk was an essential medium, since these organisms failed to produce antibiotics when grown on other synthetic or semi-synthetic media. Approximately... 

Product Challenged Growth Studies. To study the inhibitory factors of the acetone-butanol fermentation, the growth rates of Cl. acetobutylicum in the presence of each fermentation product were determined. The end products used in this study included ethanol, butanol, acetone, acetic acid, and butyric acid. From the slopes of the least squares regression lines of optical density vs. time data, the maximum specific growth rates in the presence of varying concentrations of each inhibitor ()j ) were determined. The results for each fermentation product are shown in Figures 1 - 3. There appears to be a threshold concentra-... 

From these studies of growth inhibition and fermentation kinetics in the acetone-butanol fermentation, the following conclusions may be made ... 

Dehydration of ethanol has been the most successful and important application of membrane pervaporation [2, 38]. Pervaporation (PV) is used to remove the ethanol product from fermentation broth thus preventing product inhibition. The data from ABE (acetone. 

Killeffer DH. (1927). Butanol and acetone from corn-a description of the fermentation process. Industrial Engineering Chemistry, 19, 46-50. 

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