(531f) Improved Organic Acid Purification Through Electrodeionization With Ionic Liquids

Organic acids and salts are used in a wide variety of industries, including petrochemical, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. Research focused on the improvement of synthesis and purification techniques has been of great interest to these industries. The major limiting step in this process is the removal of wastewater and other impurities from the organic product. Therefore, many separation techniques have been employed to purify organic acids and salts for commercial use. Electrodialysis has shown significant promise due to the low energy costs associated with separation and the selectivity that membranes possess. However, this process does not remove water from the product solution, so further modification is still needed.  Recently, our research has showed that the use of ionic liquids in electrodialysis has allowed organic salts separation from process waters. The addition of a bipolar membrane has allowed the conversion of organic salts into organic acids, adding versatility to the process and making the product recoverable through flash separations. However, the limitations of this process lie in the reduction of current efficiency and overall separation rates upon addition of ionic liquids, so further refinement is required. Through wafer-enhanced electrodeionization (WE-EDI), the current efficiency of ionic liquid assisted electrodialysis has improved along with the overall organic acid purification rate.  Additionally, the energy requirement for this process has also been reduced. Through WE-EDI, ionic liquid assisted electro-separations can become a commercially viable process.