Techno-economic analysis of downstream processes in itaconic acid production from fermentation broth

Abstract

Itaconic acid is a biomolecule with potential application in various products, substituting feedstocks within the petrochemical industry. Simulations of different downstream trains were done to compare the method currently used in industry for recovery of itaconic acid with a) adsorption, b) reactive extraction and c) electrodialysis, to evaluate the most advantageous process considering production costs. In these simulations, adsorption is the method with greater potential to substitute the crystallization as the main downstream method, followed by reactive extraction, which showed values close to those of crystallization. The only non-competitive method was electrodialysis. The processing costs of itaconic acid were estimated at 1.13 US$ kg−1 for the upstream and fermentation, and extra 0.89, 0.63, 0.88, 1.50 US$ kg−1 for crystallization, adsorption, extraction, and electrodialysis-based processes, respectively. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd