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Poster Presentation 2-25
Studies on Production of Organic Acids in Acidophilic Bacteria
Thomas E. Ward
Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415-2203
Telephone: (208) 526-0615; Fax: (208) 526-0828; E-mail: tew2@inel.gov
Production of organic acids by microbial fermentation under acidic conditions offers several potential advantages compared to traditional, near-neutral processes. These include: 1) elimination of the necessity to continuously add base to prevent the pH from falling to inhibitory levels; 2) elimination of the costs of base and of disposal of the large amounts of waste salt produced; 3) the protonated acid product would be directly extractable into an organic phase as the first step of concentration and purification; 4) in a two-phase reactor, an organic phase would permit continuous operation, increasing process efficiency, and would prevent buildup of inhibitory levels of product; and 5) such a process would be compatible with acidic pretreatment of feedstocks. This presentation will describe our efforts to develop such an acidophilic bioprocess for production of organic acids.
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