Recovery of fumaric acid from fermentation broth using bipolar electrodialysis

Separation of fumaric acid from fermentation broth was carried out by bipolar electrodialysis using a laboratory ED set-up with an effective membrane stack area of 64 cm2. The limiting current density was calculated on the basis of experimental current-voltage curves and optimal conditions of the process performance were proposed. Bipolar electrodialysis of post-fermentation broth from biotechnological conversion of glycerol was preceded by preliminary experiments regarding monocomponent, binary and ternary model solutions of fumaric acid. The influence of current density, pH and composition of fumaric acid model solutions on the efficiency of the process was analysed and discussed. Results of this report have proven that bipolar electrodialysis can be used as one of the purification steps towards recovery of fumaric acid from fermentation broth.