Succinic Acid Recovery and Enhancement of Emulsion Liquid Membrane Stability using Synergist Aliquat 336/TOA/Palm Oil System Assisted with Nanoparticle

Succinic acid (SA) production from fermentation has drawn great interest owing to its simplicity and environmentally friendly process, but it is constrained by high downstream processing costs. The Pickering emulsion liquid membrane (PELM) process containing synergistic carriers (Aliquat 336 and trioctylamine (TOA)) in palm oil is an attractive technology for SA recovery from fermentation broths. The synergistic extraction mechanism was investigated using reactive extraction and the method of slope analysis. Almost 100% of SA was extracted from a 10 g/L simulated solution with a synergistic coefficient of 640. Based on the individual and mixed carrier investigations, it infers that Aliquat 336 and TOA function as base and synergist carriers, respectively. The stability of water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) emulsion was studied by varying the agitation speed, Span 80 concentration, and mixed surfactant concentration (Tween 80 and Span 80). At the best stability condition of 5% w/v (Span 80 + Tween 80), hydrophilic–lipophilic balance 6, 300 rpm agitation speed, 0.1% w/v Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles, 0.1 M Aliquat 336 + 0.1 M TOA, and 1.0 M sodium hydroxide, the emulsion was stable, and almost 100% of SA was extracted and enriched five times in the internal phase. The concentration limit of SA during its recovery by ELM is 10 g/L. Meanwhile, the results from water phase separation and droplet image proved that PELM has the advantage of rapid and efficient demulsification performance, where the demulsification can be completed within 5 min. Hence, synergistic PELM is a new class of ELM for the recovery of SA and it may be extended for downstream and bio-based manufacturing.