Recovery of Ammonium Lactate and Removal of Hardness from Fermentation Broth by Nanofiltration

Nanofiltration (NF) was investigated as an alternative to desalting electrodialysis (ED) and ion exchange for the recovery of ammonium lactate from fermentation broth. Three commercial NF membranes, NF45, NF70, and NTR-729HF, were characterized with 50 mM NaCl, MgSO4, and glucose solutions. NF45 membrane was selected because it showed the lowest rejection of monovalent ion, the highest rejection of divalent ion, and the highest rejection of nonpolar molecule. Effects of the operating pressure were investigated in a range of 100-400 psig, on the flux, lactate recovery, and glucose and magnesium removal from a real fermentation broth containing about 1.0 M of ammonium lactate. The flux and recovery rate increased linearly with the pressure. However, lactate rejection also increased with the pressure, lowering the recovery yield. More magnesium ions and glucose were rejected as the pressure was increased, and at 400 psig, for example, magnesium ion was almost completely rejected, highlighting the chance of obviating the necessity of ion exchange to remove hardness, by using NF instead of desalting ED. Membrane fouling was not so severe as expected, considering the complex nature and a rather high concentration of the fermentation broth treated.