Separation of Succinic Acid from Fermentation Broth Using Weak Alkaline Anion Exchange Adsorbents

Succinic acid is one of the platform chemicals that can be bioproduced from renewable resources. Separation of succinic acid by adsorption from model solutions and fermentation broth by weak alkaline anion exchange adsorbents was studied. Adsorption capacities and regenerability of several sorts of adsorbents were tested. In a static test, the adsorbent NERCB 09 has the adsorption capacity of 0.11 g succinic acid g(-1) at succinic acid concentrations of 5 g L-1. In packed column test, its capacity was as high as 0.56 g succinic acid g(-1) when the feeding concentration wag 50 g L-1. NERCB 09 showed the high selectivity toward succinate over both glucose and amino acid at acidic or neutral conditions. Langmuir/Freundlich isotherm models and pseudo-first/second-order equations were presented to simulate the adsorption behavior. Data showed that the temperature had little effect on the adsorption isotherm. Kinetic parameters suggested that about 1.5 h were Sufficient for the adsorption equilibrium. The adsorbent was easily regenerated, The adsorption capacity was steady after 30 cycles and showed 96% average recovery.