Industrial Production of Citric

Acid
Application of Citric Acid:
- Acidulant in food, confectionary, and beverage
(75%)
- Pharmaceutical (10%), e.g. soluble aspirin
preparation
- industrial (15%): complexes with metals such as
iron and copper to be stabilizer of oil and fats.

UNITII
CITRICACIDANDALCOHOLPRODUCTION
R.KAVITHA,M.PHARM
LECTURER,
DEPARTMENTOFPHARMACUTICS
SRMCOLEGEOFPHARMACY
SRMUNIVERITY

Citric Acid Production by Aerobic Bioprocesses

Wikipedia

Industrial Production of Citric Acid

- Microorganism: Aspergillus niger (mainly), Candida
yeast (from carbohydrates or n-alkanes)
- Citric acid production is mixed growth associated, mainly
take place under nitrogen and phosphate limitation after
growth has ceased.
- Medium requirements for high production
- Carbon source: molasses or sugar solution.
- Na-ferrocyanide is added to reduce Iron (1.3 ppm) and
manganese (<0.1ppm).
- High dissolved oxygen concentration
- High sugar concentration
- pH<2
- 30 oC.

Industrial Production of Citric Acid

Bioreactor: batch or fed-batch (100m3)
- 5-25X106 A. niger spores/L may be introduced to the
fermentor.
- Aeration is provided to the fermenter by air sparging (0.1-0.4
vvm)
- Temperature is controlled by cooling coil.
- Agitation: 50-100rpm to avoid shear damage on molds.
- Fed-batch is used to reduce substrate inhibition and prolong
the production phase one or two days after growth
cessation.
- Volumetric yield: 130 kg/m3

Industrial Production of Citric Acid

Separation:
- The biomass is separated by filtration
- The liquid is transferred to recovery process:
- Separation of citric acid from the liquid: precipitation
calcium hydroxide is added to obtain calcium citrate
tetrahydrate wash the precipitate dissolve it with
dilute sulfuric acid, yield citric acid and calcium
sulfate precipitate bleach and crystallization
anhydrous or monohydrate citric acid.

Industrial Production of Ethanol

Application of Ethanol:
- Medical
- Fuel
- Industrial

Ethanol Production by Anaerobic

Bioprocesses
Glycolysis

Industrial Production of Citric Acid

- Microorganism:

S. cerevisae for hexose

Candida sp. for lactose or pentose
Genetically modified E. coli

- Ethanol production is growth-associated with S.

cerevisae.
- Medium requirements for high production
- Carbon source: sugar cane, starch materials (e.g. corn,
wheat), cellulosic materials (?!). yield: 0.51 g ethanol/g
glucose.
- N, P, minerals.
- Anaerobic
- 100g/L glucose are inhibitory for yeast.
- 5% (v/v) of ethanol are inhibitory for yeast.
- pH:4-6 for 30-35 oC.

Industrial Production of Citric Acid

Bioreactor: batch, continuous or with cell recycle
95% conversion of sugars with a residence time of
40 h in batch reactor
21 h in continuous reactor without cell recycle
1.6 h in continuous reactor with cell cycle
By-products: glycerol, acetic acid, succinic acid.
Separation:
- Distillation to obtaining 95% (w/w) of ethanol-water
mixture, followed by
- Molecular sieves to removing water from the
mixture to get anhydrous ethanol.

Ethanol Production
http://www.cleantechblog.com/uploaded_images/product
ion_process-718492.jpg