Back to Opportunities
Purification of organic acids from fermentation processes
What questions do you have about this RFP?
Get them answered by the team at BASF.
Background

Small acids (e.g. malic acid, fumaric acid, propionic acid, succinic acid, etc.) are essential in various industries, serving as chemical precursors, antimicrobials and acidulants in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and chemical sectors. These acids are promising candidates for production from biobased raw materials via fermentation, given their well-established biosynthetic pathways. The production of such acids requires a strict pH buffering system leading to accumulation of salts. In addition, acids are usually water soluble and therefore difficult to separate from the fermentation broth.  

 

To mitigate this issue, the conventional approach is to neutralize the organic acids by adding a base into the fermentation medium, converting the acids into their corresponding salts, causing them to precipitate from the broth. However, this process leads to large waste streams of a mixture of salts, both desired and undesirable that require energy-intensive separations and processes to recycle. An alternative approach involves in-situ extraction of the organic acids using an organic solvent such as ethyl acetate. However, the efficiency of this process depends on the concentration and partition coefficient of the organic acid, often requiring high solvent flows, which increase solvent use and operational costs.

What we're looking for

We are looking for new technologies that enable the isolation of small organic acids (C2-C6) from dilute aqueous fermentation broths. The solution should achieve high yields, while being more energy- and waste-efficient compared to the processes described above.

We want to avoid large waste streams (e.g. salt load) and achieve attractive cost targets for the end products.

Solutions of interest include:
  • Advanced membrane filtration
  • Adsorption-based extraction using functionalized particles
  • In-situ reactive extraction
  • Electrodialysis
  • Solvent-efficient liquid extraction
  • Crystallization technology
Our must-have requirements are:
  • Efficient removal of small organic acids (C2-C6) from fermentation broth through downstream processing.
  • Downstream process should result in individual purified organic acids.
  • Compatibility to fermentation processes already established at least in lab scale.
Our nice-to-have's are:
  • Process development for fermentation stream processing (continuous process) is preferred over batch processing.
What's out of scope:
  • Screening of acid-tolerant production strains.
  • Major re-engineering of existing production strains.
  • New fermentation methods.
Acceptable technology readiness levels (TRL):
Levels 3-5
What we can offer you
Eligible partnership models:
Sponsored research
Licensing
Benefits:
Sponsored Research
Funding is dependent on the proposal's extent, but an accepted proof of concept proposal could expect support in the range of $25,000 - $100,000 (milestone dependent) to establish feasibility with the potential for follow on funding.
Expertise
Partners will have access to internal team/ experts as appropriate
Reviewers
BN
Barbara Nave
projekt manager
MB
Michael Breuer
Project Accounting
LJ
Lauren Junker
Technology Scout
TH
Tom Holcombe
Collaboration & Scouting NA
EI
Emir Islamovic
Innovation and Partnership Manager
KB
Kavita Bitra
Technology scout
SS
Sophia Steffens
Innovation & Scouting
Q&A with BASF

The Q&A is now closed.

Sort by:
Most upvoted
Q.
Hello BASF team. Does the call aim for a single technology to achieve the separation objective, or is it the use of multiple technologies to produce individual purified organic acids?
3
A.
Hello Angela, We are open to solutions that can be implemented either alone or in combination. We look forward to reviewing your proposal, Lauren
LJ
Lauren Junker, Technology Scout, BASF
October 24, 2024
Is this response helpful?
1
0
Q.
I have academics who work in developing cages to enable complex separations, but they don't work in microbial broths specifically. Given your TRL scope, would they still be eligible?
YC
Yolande Cordeaux, Research Development, University of Cambridge
October 18, 2024
2
A.
Hello Yolande, We will consider solutions that have a demonstrated an experimental proof of concept at lab scale. If your technology has such a PoC with similar solutions we would be happy to review the proposal, Lauren
LJ
Lauren Junker, Technology Scout, BASF
October 24, 2024
Is this response helpful?
0
0
Q.
Hello BASF team: Is cell removal part of the separation challenge, or does the fermentation broth only contain dissolved material?
2
A.
Hello Angela, The separations will be from fermentation broth which contain cell biomass. We do have effective approaches for separating the cell biomass. Therefore we would be most interested in the separations approach for the organic acids. We look forward to reviewing your proposal, Lauren
LJ
Lauren Junker, Technology Scout, BASF
October 24, 2024
Is this response helpful?
1
0
Q.
Hello BASF team: What level of purity is required for the isolated acids?, are there any significant impurities in the broth? and what is the typical concentration range of organic acids (C2-C6) in the broth?
2
A.
Hello Carlos, Thank you for your question. Level of purity: For a proof of concept we would be targeting purities of >90% but ideally >95%. Impurities in the broth: "normal" fermentation broth should be considered, beyond that we do not anticipate significant impurities. Typical concentration range: This can vary based on the acid but could be expected to be in the initial range of 10-120 g/L. We hope this is helpful as you craft your proposal, we look forward to reviewing it, Kind regards, Lauren
LJ
Lauren Junker, Technology Scout, BASF
September 12, 2024
Is this response helpful?
1
0
Q.
What is the key separation challenge? The whole process likely will involve multiple unit processes, including removing large organic molecules, ionic salts, and perhaps fractionation of organic acids? what's the focus?
1
A.
The key separation challenge is described in the text above. We are talking about small acids in watery broths and they are not easily separated unless one forms the salt.
BN
Barbara Nave, projekt manager, BASF
October 17, 2024
Is this response helpful?
0
0
Q.
Hello BASF Reviewers, are you able to share the scaled-up capacity you envision or may eventually target? For example, what flow rate or annual product output are you aiming for? Thank you for your time.
1
A.
Hi Matthew, we are not looking for one specific acid, but are happy to see solutions for any small acid that fits the description above. What is true for all of them is that producing them eventually at annual volumes lower than 20-30kt will not make economic sense. So at some point in the future any technology would have to be able to scale to at least those sort of volumes.
BN
Barbara Nave, projekt manager, BASF
October 1, 2024
Is this response helpful?
0
0
Q.
will you provide the broth or we will use synthetic broth for the project? if later can you provide a relevant composition?
1
A.
That would depend on the precise project. Both is possible, but also depends on logistic issues (i.e. if the broth is from Germany it might be difficult to send it to the US).
BN
Barbara Nave, projekt manager, BASF
October 17, 2024
Is this response helpful?
0
0
Share Opportunity
Complete
Seeking partners focused on
Analytical Chemistry
Bilayers
Biochemistry
Biofilms
Bioinformatics
Biological Fluid Dynamics
Biomolecular Processes
Biophysics
Biosystems
Cell Biology
42 more
Cell Membrane Transport
Chemical Physics
Complex Systems
Computational Biology
Computational Chemistry
Electrochemistry
Food Chemistry & Biochemistry
Food Engineering & Processing
Food Microbiology
Food Safety
Food Science
General Chemistry
Growth Processes
Industrial Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
Membranes
Metabolomics
Microbiology
Microbiome
Microfluidics
Molecular Biology
Nanomaterials
Nanotechnology
Organic Chemistry
Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Pharmacology
Physical Chemistry
Polymer Behavior
Proteomics
Synthetic Biology
Systems Biology
Thermodynamics
Toxicology
Biotechnology
Biology
Biomedical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Food Science & Nutrition
Industrial Engineering
Materials Science
Physics
Halo home
Discover tomorrow's
breakthroughs today.
Get new partnering opportunities
delivered to your inbox.
© 2023 Halo Cures, Inc.