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Updated: May 12, 2026

Continuous Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Medium-Chain Fatty Acids from Fermentation Broth Using Hollow-Fiber Membranes
Published on: August 9, 2024
Improving medium chain fatty acid productivity using chain elongation by reducing the hydraulic retention time in an
T I M Grootscholten1, K J J Steinbusch, H V M Hamelers
1Sub-Department of Environmental Technology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. Tim.Grootscholten@wur.nl
Abstract:
The objective of this investigation was to further increase the medium chain fatty acid (MCFA) production rate by reducing the hydraulic retention time (HRT) in an upflow anaerobic filter. The results showed that the volumetric MCFA production rate was increased to 57.4 g MCFA l(-1) d(-1), more than 3 times higher than previous work. Despite the lower MCFA concentrations at 4h HRT, the MCFA selectivity remained above 80%. Extra carbon dioxide additions and higher yeast extract concentrations were required to increase the MCFA production rate. More research related to substrates and (micro)nutrients in mixed culture continuous reactors needs to be performed to reduce yeast extract use in chain elongation.
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