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Energy requirements and economics of acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) extractive fermentation: a solvent-based comparative assessment

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Abstract

The reindustrialization of acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) fermentation is hampered by its significant production cost, linked to high product inhibition and low product yield. ABE fermentation can be significantly enhanced by integrating in situ liquid–liquid extraction. In this study, hybrid simulations using Excel® and ASPEN Plus® were performed based on solvent-dependent experimental data (product titer, yield and productivity) to consider the physiological response of the microorganism in specific extractive ABE fermentations, and to quantify the energy requirements and the economic improvement of the overall process. Four scenarios, based on two different solvents (2-butyl-1-octanol, 2B1O, and a vegetable oil, VO) applied in batch or fed-batch operation, were compared with the batch conventional process. Total energy demand decreased in all extractive configurations and the greatest energy savings (61%) were reached with the VO-based fed-batch operation. However, the highest profit increase was achieved with 2B1O in fed-batch mode, reducing the minimum butanol selling price by 29% over the base case, along with 34% savings in raw materials and 80% wastewater reduction. The techno–economical solvent-based comparative evaluation is a useful tool to identify key challenges to be tackled when revisiting ABE extractive fermentation.

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Abbreviations

∆Glu :

Glucose consumption in a fermentation run (kg/m3)

AT :

Total theoretical acetone concentration (kg/m3)

BT :

Total theoretical butanol concentration (kg/m3)

Bcrit :

Critical threshold of aqueous butanol concentration (kg/m3)

ET :

Total theoretical ethanol concentration (kg/m3)

Fbioreactor :

Mass flow rate from the bioreactor (kg/h)

FDS,out :

Mass flow rate from the downstream section (kg/h)

Fregen :

Mass flow rate from the regeneration section (kg/h)

K:

Partition coefficient

mB :

Fixed theoretical mass production rate of butanol (kg/h)

Pvol,B :

Volumetric productivity of a fermentation run (kg B/(m3 h))

Pmvol,B :

Modified volumetric productivity, considering tTC (kg B/(m3 h))

Sel:

Selectivity

tDS :

Time of transfer to downstream section (h)

tf :

Time of a fermentation cycle (h)

tTC :

Total cycle time (h)

tto :

Time of turnover (h)

QDS :

Volumetric rate to downstream section (m3/h)

Vaq :

Aqueous phase volume in the bioreactor (m3)

Vext :

Minimum extractant volume referred to Vaq (m3)

VTOT :

Total aqueous volume required (m3)

Y:

Mass yield (kg product/kg glucose consumed

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Spanish Government (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) through the ERA-IB2 project 2G-Enzymes (PCIN-2015-031). The authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC-ED431C 2017/29 and to the CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP2015/02). All these programs are co-funded by FEDER (EU).

Funding

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain). Grant Number PCIN-2015-031.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, CRETUS Institute, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Helena González-Peñas, Thelmo A. Lu-Chau, Gemma Eibes & Juan M. Lema

Authors
  1. Helena González-Peñas
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  2. Thelmo A. Lu-Chau
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  3. Gemma Eibes
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  4. Juan M. Lema
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Contributions

HGP and TLC conceived the work. HGP, TLC and GE carried out the process simulations. JL coordinated the study, including the definition of scenarios. HGP was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thelmo A. Lu-Chau.

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The authors declare they have no competing interests.

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The datasets during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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González-Peñas, H., Lu-Chau, T.A., Eibes, G. et al. Energy requirements and economics of acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) extractive fermentation: a solvent-based comparative assessment. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 43, 2269–2281 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-020-02412-7

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