Amine-based systems for carboxylic acid recovery

Several carboxylic acids are prominent commercial products, and their number and importance will probably grow. Getting these acids out of aqueous solution is necessary in petrochemical manufacture, fermentation, and the environmentally and economically important recovery from waste streams. In this paper, the authors discuss the methods possible to extract acids such as citric, lactic, and succinic from complex mixtures. Carboxylic acids are also readily made by fermentation and are among the most attractive substances that could be manufactured from biomass. Branches of this cycle lead to acetic, lactic, propionic, and formic acids, among others. Carboxylic acids are promising intermediates in a bioprocessing complex, because the oxygen of the biomass is placed in a form that is useful for further reaction with many other products. Citric acid is manufactured on a large scale by fermentation, and lactic and fumaric acids, among others, were manufactured that way in the past.