(522c) Electrochemical Separations for Bioprocessing Applications.

In this presentation, an overview will be provided of a number of such electrochemical separation processes. This will include the use of electrodialysis for the removal of lactic acid from dairy whey. Capacitive deionisation will be explored as a contrast to this approach. Electrodialysis can also be combined with bipolar membranes to purify organic acids from fermentation broths and the use of monovalent selective membranes in this application will be described. Further, electrodialysis can be combined with filtration membranes to separate larger molecules such as immunoglobulins and lactoferrin.

The presentation will also give an overview of the mathematical models being developed to better understand the efficiency of these processes. In our own work, we have applied the Manning Model to explain the transfer behaviour of organic acid ions in anion-exchange membranes with some success. While this model was able to adequately fit experimental data for the lactate anion, it was unable to properly represent the acetate anion.