Organic Acids
Organic acids are a class of organic molecules containing a carboxyl group (-COOH) functional group. The carboxyl group is the characteristic structure of organic acids, imparting acidic properties to them. Organic acids can be obtained through industrial fermentation, chemical synthesis. The most popular organic acids and their main applications are following:
1. Citric Acid: Widely used in the food and beverage industry as an acidulant, also largely used in pharmaceuticals and detergents industry.
2. Lactic Acid: Commonly used in the food and pharmaceutical industries as an acidulant and pH regulator. It is also the fundamental compound structure unit for the biopolymer polylactic acid(PLA).
3. Malic Acid: Used as an acidulant in the food industry, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
4. Oxalic Acid: Primarily used for cleaning, descaling, and in the metallurgical industry.
5. Succinic Acid: Used in cosmetics, food, pharmaceuticals. It is also a very important bio-based four-carbon platform compound.
Typical Case: Lactic Acid
Technologies can be offered by SmarSEP:
• Efficient strains.
• Mature fermentation process(Calcium Lactate).
• Ion exchange: reducing resin loading by over 40% compared to traditional ion exchange processes, lower chemical consumption and reduced wastewater volume.
• Nanofiltration membrane: Removes large molecules such as sugar, oligosaccharides, proteins; ensuring high purity lactic acid products.
• Chromatography/or Solvents Extraction: by recover Lactic acid remaining in the distillation vinasses, to ensure achieving purification yield 90+%.