Liquid Membranes in Nanopores with Strip Dispersion for Antibiotic Recovery

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。使用生物催化剂的酶合成方法的最新进展导致了对环境友好的β-内酰胺类抗生素的生产方法。由于很难将所需的抗生素从反应混合物的其他成分中分离出来，这些方法在工业应用中受到了限制。开发一种从水溶液和发酵液中回收抗生素的简单、易操作的分离工艺将消除酶法生产抗生素的一个主要缺陷。建议的研究将集中在使用带状分散的支撑液膜从发酵液中回收抗生素。拟议的过程将以一种简单的方式回收和浓缩抗生素，同时提供长期稳定性，这是工业使用的要求。该工艺将萃取和反萃取相结合，在传统的萃取工艺中分两步进行，形成一步膜法。这种一步法工艺不仅简化了分离过程，还消除了对萃取器和反萃取器的需要。该工艺还克服了溶剂的热力学溶解度限制。因此，这一过程将节省大量资金和能源。将在实验室范围内对头孢氨苄的回收进行广泛研究，以确定分离过程中的重要因素。了解包括界面络合反应和络合扩散在内的传质机理，以及开发描述适合放大的传质的数学模型也是本工作的目标。一旦完全了解头孢氨苄的回收过程，其他抗生素的类似工艺将被开发出来。带状分散的支撑液膜从未被用于涉及抗生素或生物化学物质回收的综合研究。建议的分离方案提供了一个高效和稳定的分离过程。长期稳定性是液膜工艺商业化的关键障碍。这项研究不仅对基本了解输送机理具有很大的科学意义，而且可能提供一种具有重要技术意义的改进分离方案。我们认为，这是对扩大对抗生素分离/回收科学技术的科学知识和理解的重大贡献。这项工作也为参与此类研究的学生提供了教育。由此产生的工作将对抗生素的工业生产产生直接影响。与目前用于抗生素分离的工业工艺相比，拟议的一步法工艺将节省能源，降低成本，消除有毒溶剂，并以更高的效率运行。这些改进将促进酶合成方法在抗生素生产中的工业应用。该工艺还有可能有效地从发酵液中分离其他有机酸，如乳酸、柠檬酸和丙酸，并回收其他有机化合物，包括生物乙醇和丁醇。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). 0932511HoRecent advances in enzymatic synthetic methods using biocatalysts have lead to environmentally friendly production methods of beta-lactam antibiotics. These methods have been limited in their industrial use due to the difficult separation of the desired antibiotic from other components of the reaction mixture. The development of a simple and easy to operate separation process for antibiotic recovery from aqueous solutions and fermentation broths would eliminate a major drawback of enzymatic antibiotic production. The research proposed will focus on the recovery of antibiotics from fermentation broths using supported liquid membranes with strip dispersion. The proposed process will recover and concentrate antibiotics in a simple manner, while providing long-term stability, which is a requirement for industrial use. This process combines extraction and back-extraction, carried out in 2 separate steps in conventional extraction processes, into a one-step membrane process. This one step process not only simplifies the separation process, but also eliminates the needs for the extractor and the back extractor. This process also overcomes the thermodynamic solubility limitation of solvent. Thus, this process will have both significant capital and energy savings. The recovery of Cephalexin will be studied extensively on a laboratory scale to determine important factors in the separation process. The understanding of the mass transfer mechanism involving interfacial complexation reactions and complex diffusion and the development of mathematical models that describe the mass transfer suitable for scale-up are also goals of this work. Once the recovery of Cephalexin is fully understood, similar processes for other antibiotics will be developed. Supported liquid membranes with strip dispersion have never been used in comprehensive studies involving the recovery of antibiotics or biochemicals. The proposed separation scheme provides an efficient and stable separation process. Long-term stability is the key obstacle in commercialization of liquid membrane processes. This research not only is of a great scientific interest in the fundamental understanding of the transport mechanism but also may provide an improved separation scheme of significant technological importance. We believe that it represents a significant contribution to expanding the scientific knowledge and understanding in the science and technology of antibiotic separation/recovery. This work also provides the education of the students involved with such kind of research. The resulting work will have immediate impacts on the industrial production of antibiotics. The proposed one-step process will save energy, reduce costs, eliminate toxic solvents, and operate at higher efficiencies compared to current industrial processes used for antibiotic separation. These improvements will foster the industrial use of enzymatic synthetic methods for antibiotic production. This process also has potential for the effective separation of other organic acids from fermentation broths such as lactic acid, citric acid, and propionic acid and for the recovery of other organic compounds including bio ethanol and butanol.