Process for manufacturing propionate products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10815503-B2
Application number	US-201615558842-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2016
Priority date	Mar 18, 2015
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

A process for manufacturing propionate products through fermentation, including the steps of fermenting a carbon source selected from sugars and lactate in a fermentation medium by means of a propionic acid producing microorganism to provide a first fermentation broth comprising a propionate salt, recovering propionic acid producing microorganism from the first fermentation broth, subjecting the first fermentation broth from which propionic acid producing microorganism have been recovered to a water removal step to form a first propionate salt product, fermenting a carbon source comprising glycerol with the propionic acid producing microorganism recovered from the first fermentation broth in the presence of an inorganic alkaline salt to provide a second fermentation broth comprising a propionate salt, subjecting the second fermentation broth to a purification step comprising at least one precipitation step, to form a second propionate salt product. The process allows efficient manufacture of propionate salts products.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for manufacturing propionate salts through fermentation, comprising the steps of
fermenting a carbon source selected from sugars and lactate in a fermentation medium by means of a propionic acid producing microorganism to provide a first fermentation broth comprising a propionate salt,
recovering propionic acid producing microorganism from the first fermentation broth,
subjecting the first fermentation broth from which propionic acid producing microorganism have been recovered to a water removal step to form a first propionate salt,
fermenting a carbon source comprising glycerol with the propionic acid producing microorganism recovered from the first fermentation broth in the presence of an inorganic alkaline salt to provide a second fermentation broth comprising a propionate salt,
subjecting the second fermentation broth to a purification step comprising at least one precipitation step, to form a second propionate salt.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the propionate salt generated in the first and the second fermentation broth are salts of the same cation.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the carbon source is selected from the group consisting of glucose, lactate, sucrose and combinations thereof.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein in the step of fermenting a carbon source selected from sugars and lactate, the weight of the biomass has increases in such a manner that the amount of biomass recovered is generally at least 10 times the weight of the biomass originally added.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the first fermentation broth from which propionic acid producing microorganism have been recovered is subjected to a water removal step in its entirety.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the step of subjecting the first fermentation broth from which propionic acid producing microorganism have been recovered is carried out by a process comprising precipitation of a propionate salt from the first fermentation broth.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the carbon source comprising glycerol contains at least 70 wt. % of glycerol calculated on the total amount of carbon source provided during the fermentation.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the second fermentation broth is subjected first to a biomass removal step.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein in addition to propionate salts, other carboxylate salts are also precipitated.

10. The process according to claim 1 , wherein succinate salts and propionate salts are precipitated sequentially from the second fermentation broth.

11. The process according to claim 9 , wherein a product comprising
70-80 weight percent (wt %) of a calcium propionate,
0-5 wt % of a calcium acetate, and
0-10 wt % of a calcium succinate salt,

is precipitated, where the calcium propionate, the calcium acetate, and the calcium succinate make up at least 85 wt % of the precipitated product, the percentages being calculated based on the respective anion of the total anhydrous solid material.

12. The process according to claim 9 , wherein a product comprising
70-80 weight percent (wt %) of a calcium propionate,
0-5 wt % of a calcium acetate, and
0-20 wt % of a calcium succinate salt,

is precipitated, where the calcium propionate, the calcium acetate, and the calcium succinate make up at least 95 wt % of the precipitated product, the percentages being calculated based on the respective anion of the total anhydrous solid material.

13. The process according to claim 9 , wherein a product comprising
70-80 weight percent (wt %) of a calcium propionate,
0-2 wt % of a calcium acetate, and
0-5 wt % of a calcium succinate salt,

is precipitated, the percentages being calculated based on the respective anion of the total anhydrous solid material.

Assignees

• Purac Biochem Bv

Inventors

• Visser Diana
• Meijer Jasper
• Soares Mendes Filipa Cristina

Classifications

• C12P7/52 Primary

  Propionic acid; Butyric acids · CPC title

• C07C53/122

  Propionic acid · CPC title