PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC OR AMINO ACIDS BY
BIPOLAR MEMBRANE ELECTRODIALYSIS
The low cost production of many organic or amino acids is desirable
for many industrial applications: this includes food acidulation,
animal feed, and biodegradable plastics (such as polylactates).
Some of these simple aliphatic acids, such as lactic, acetic, succinic,
or citric acids, as well as glycine, can be produced by fermentation
of various carbohydrate sources. In these processes, as well as
in the chemical syntheses, bipolar membrane electrodialysis can
play a major role to simplify the process, eliminate by-products,
and avoid the use of additional chemicals.
Also, some salts of organic acids are produced as by-products of
other chemical syntheses. For example, sodium formate is a by-product
of the production of pentaerythritol and can be sold as is or upgraded
to the organic acid by bipolar membrane electrodialysis.
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