Fermen
ta
tion
technology is po
ten
tially sus
tainable for i
ts use of renewable feeds
tocks. Large-scale applica
tion requires efficien
t downs
tream processing in
tegra
ted wi
th fermen
ta
tion, which can be es
tablished by in si
tu produc
t removal. In
this field,
the removal of sligh
tly wa
ter-soluble compounds
tha
t are subjec
t to specia
tion is challenging. Applica
tion of elec
trodialysis (ED), promising for produc
t removal of charged compounds, is limi
ted for sligh
tly wa
ter-soluble componen
ts. Our approach, elec
trochemically induced crys
talliza
tion (EIC), makes use of crys
talliza
tion of sligh
tly wa
ter-soluble componen
ts inside ED modules as a means of in si
tu produc
t removal.
Proof-of-principle experiments show that EIC effectively decreases concentrations of several carboxylic acids in aqueous systems. Fermentation experiments with Pseudomonas putida S12 indicated that integration of EIC with bio-based processes should be in an external loop with indirect contact to avoid a decrease in biomass activity and fouling of biomass inside the ED module. The implementation study demonstrates that high product removal rates can be maintained by regenerating the ED module using an auxiliary phase.