RESUMO
Various water-immiscible solvents were tested for biocompatibility and hydrocarbon recovery under different contact conditions with the hydrocarbon-rich microalga Botryococcus braunii. Eighteen solvents were first selected from a database of 1500 compounds (compiled for solvent selection for ethanol recovery from Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation). Nine of these candidate solvents were shown to be biocompatible with B. braunii following short contact times. This biocompatibility tends to be associated with high molecular weights and high boiling points but strongly depends on solvent chemical structure. A low polarity is essential to biocompatibility and calculated octanol-water partition coefficients, or capacity factors determined by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), are suitable predictors of biocompatibility with B. braunii. High recoveries of hydrocarbons directly from the algal culture require relatively polar solvents and are, therefore, inimical with maintenance of cell viability. The inaccessibility of weakly polar solvents to the cell surface appears to protect the algae but also prevents substantial recovery of the hydrocarbons stored in B. braunii outer walls. In order to achieve a high recovery, contact with the solvent must be carried out on algae concentrated by filtration. Then, a large fraction of B. braunii hydrocarbons can be recovered, after a short contact time, without impairing cell viability. Under these conditions, the pertinent solvent property is affinity for the nonpolar hydrocarbons, and the highest recovery yield, approximately 70% after contact for 30 min, is achieved with hexane.
RESUMO
Extractive fermentation is a technique that can be used to reduce the effect of end product inhibition through the use of a water-immiscible phase that removes fermentation products in situ. This has the beneficial effect of not only removing inhibitory products as they are formed (thus keeping reaction rates high) but also has the potential for reducing product recovery costs. We have chosen to examine the ethanol fermentation as a model system for end product inhibition and extractive fermentation and have developed a computer model predicting the productivity enhancement possible with this technique together with other key parameters such as extraction efficiency and residual glucose concentration. The model accommodates variable liquid flowrates entering and leaving the system, since it was found that the aqueous outlet flowrate could be up to 35% lower than the inlet flowrate during extractive fermentation of concentrated glucose feeds due to the continuous removal of ethanol from the fermentation broth by solvent extraction. The model predicts a total ethanol productivity of 82.6 g/L h if a glucose feed of 750 g/L is fermented with a solvent having a distribution coefficient of 0.5 at a solvent dilution rate of 5.0 h(-1). This is more than 10 times higher than for a conventional chemostat fermentation of a 250 g/L glucose feed. The model has furthermore illustrated the possible trade-offs that exist between obtaining a high extraction efficiency and a low residual glucose concentration.
