Integrated two-liquid phase bioconversion and product-recovery processes for the oxidation of alkanes: Process design and economic evaluation
Pseudomonas oleovorans and recombinant strains containing the alkane oxidation genes can product alkane oxidation genes can produce alkane oxidation products in two-liquid phase bioreactor systems. In these bioprocesses the cells, which grow in the aqueous phase, oxidize apolar, non-water soluble substrates. The apolar products typically accumulate in the emulsified apolar phase. The authors have studied both the bioconversion systems and several downstream processing systems to separate and purify alkanols from these two-liquid phase media. Based on the information generated in these studies, the authors have now designed bioconversion and downstream processing systems for the production of 1-alkanols from n-alkanes on a 10 kiloton/yr scale, taking the conversion of n-octane to 1-octanol as a model system. Here, the authors describe overall designs of fed-batch and continuous-fermentation processes for the oxidation of octane to 1-octanol by Pseudomonas oleovoran, and the authors discuss the economics of these processes. The overall performance of each of these two systems has been modeled with Aspen software. Although the continuous process is about 10% more expensive than the fed-batch process, improvements to reduce overall cost can be achieved more easily for continuous than for fed-batch fermentation by decreasing the dilution rate while maintaining near constant productivity. Improvements relevant to both processes can be achieved by increasing the biocatalyst performance, which results in improved overall efficiency, decreased capital investment, and hence, decreased production cost.
- Research Organization:
- Inst. of Biotechnology, Zurich (CH)
- OSTI ID:
- 20000545
- Journal Information:
- Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 64, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: 20 Aug 1999; ISSN 0006-3592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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