Energy-efficient recovery of fermented butyric acid using octyl acetate extraction

BACKGROUND: A butyric acid recovery process using octyl acetate is proposed, and the design details of the extraction and subsequent distillation processes were investigated. Ternary equilibrium data for the extractor design were derived from molecular simulations and experimental measurements. RESULTS: A new procedure for estimating the thermodynamic parameters was introduced to determine the effect of the parameters on extractor design by comparison with previously reported parameters. Using the proposed recovery process with the newly estimated thermodynamic model, 99.8% butyric acid was recovered from the fermentation broth at a recovery rate of 99%. The energy demand for the proposed process was found to be lower than the average demand for several reported butyric acid recovery processes. CONCLUSIONS: The investment cost is projected to be lower than that of other butyric acid processes due to the high efficiency of extraction solvent. The recovery cost of butyric acid was comparable to its selling price. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13068-022-02146-6.