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Title:
PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC ACIDS FROM AN INTEGRATION OF SOLAR OR FUEL CELL WITH ELECTRODIALYSIS SYSTEM
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2013/022334
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
The present invention relates to a process for the production of organic acids from an integration of solar or fuel cell with a round shaped electrodialysis system, whereby separation and purification of organic acids is carried out by using an electrodialysis system after the fermentation process. Said electrodialysis is attached to a fuel cell or solar cell to provide a direct current (DC) power supply to the round shaped electrodialysis system.

Inventors:
LEE SOO KENG (MY)
LING LAY PEE (MY)
Application Number:
PCT/MY2012/000199
Publication Date:
February 14, 2013
Filing Date:
July 09, 2012
Export Citation:
Click for automatic bibliography generation   Help
Assignee:
LEE SOO KENG (MY)
International Classes:
B01D61/46; C12P7/40
Foreign References:
US5814498A1998-09-29
US5002881A1991-03-26
US6042701A2000-03-28
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
WONG, Jan Ping (3.02 Menara Boustead Penang,3, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah Penang, MY)
Download PDF:
Claims:
WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A process for the production of organic acids comprising the steps of, i. growing microorganism in a fermenter containing nutrient medium to obtain an aqueous product with its organic salt; ii. pre-filtering of said aqueous product with its organic salt before electrodialysis; iii. introducing said aqueous product with its organic salt into the electrodialysis system; iv. applying an electrical current to convert the organic salt into organic acid; characterized in that said electrical current is obtained from the fuel cell system by means of using hydrogen gas as fuel to supply a direct current (DC) to the electrodialysis system.

2. A process for the production of organic acids as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said hydrogen gas can be obtained from sources such as solar panels, natural gas or biofuel reformer from palm oil and other sources which are able to produce hydrogen.

3. A process for the production of organic acids comprising the steps of, i. growing microorganism in a fermenter containing nutrient medium to obtain an aqueous product with its organic salt; ii. pre-filtering of said aqueous product with its organic salt before electrodialysis; iii. introducing said aqueous product with its organic salt into the electrodialysis system; iv. applying an electrical current to convert the organic salt into organic acid; characterized in that said electrical current is obtained from a DC power unit or a power source to supply a direct current (DC) to the electrodialysis system.

4. A process for the production of organic acids as claimed in Claim 3 wherein said power source includes a solar powered device or a photovoltaic module, which converts energy from the sun to electrical direct current (DC) power through a plurality of solar cells or solar panels.

5. A process for the production of organic acids as claimed in Claim 4 comprises of,

combinator to combine all of the current produced by each solar panel to generate a high voltage;

charge controller to limit the current flowing into the battery;

battery bank to store all of the solar power obtained.

6. A process for the production of organic acids as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 3 wherein said electrodialysis system is a round shaped electrodialysis system comprising of a plurality of electrodialysis cell units (201) which are packed in a circular manner with each electrodialysis cell unit (201) arranged vertically and connected to a structural frame (202).

7. A process for the production of organic acids as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 3 wherein said electrodialysis system can be any conventional electrodialysis system which may be square or rectangular in shape.

8. A process for the production of organic acids as claimed in Claim 6 wherein said round shaped electrodialysis system comprises of conventional electrodialysis or bipolar electrodialysis or combination of both to recover and to concentrate said organic salt to form organic acid.

9. A process for the production of organic acids as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 3 wherein said pre-filtering of said aqueous product with its organic salt is carried out by using the membrane filtration system.

10. A process for the production of organic acids as claimed in Claim 9 wherein said membrane filtration system comprises of at least one of the following:

microfiltration membrane;

nanofiltration membrane;

electrodialysis membrane system,

wherein the type of membrane used depends on the type of organic acids that are to be produced.

11. An electrodialysis system comprising of,

at least a pair of electrodes (203); a series of ion exchange membranes;

at least one liquid inlet;

at least one liquid outlet;

characterized in that

said electrodialysis system is a round shaped electrodialysis system comprises of a plurality of electrodialysis cell units (201) which is packed in a circular manner with each electrodialysis cell unit (201) arranged vertically and connected to a structural frame (202).

12. An electrodialysis system as claimed in Claim 11 wherein each of said plurality of electrodialysis cell unit (201) comprises of a series of ion-exchange membranes depending on its application.

13. An electrodialysis system as claimed in Claim 11 wherein at said structural frame (202) there is provided with at least a pair of electrodes (203), at least one liquid inlet and at least one liquid outlet.

14. An electrodialysis system as claimed in Claim 11 wherein said structural frame (202) comprises of top portion (206) and base portion (207) so that one end of said electrodialysis cell units (201) are connected to said top portion (206) and the other end of said electrodialysis cell units (201) are connected to said base portion (207).

15. An electrodialysis system as claimed in Claim 11 wherein said round shaped electrodialysis system is connected to a power source which is used to supply an electrical current wherein said electrical current can be obtained from various sources such as a direct current (DC) power unit, a solar powered device, a photovoltaic module or a fuel cell system as long as a direct current (DC) is supplied to said electrodialysis system.

16. An electrodialysis system as claimed in Claim 11 further comprises of an automated control switch wherein before the removal of a particular electrodialysis cell unit (201), said automated control switch can be activated to terminate the electrical current flow into the particular electrodialysis cell unit (201) and to stop any incoming or exit flow of any fluid stream.

17. An electrodialysis system as claimed in Claim 11 wherein each of said electrodialysis cell unit (201) at said round shaped electrodialysis system can be removed individually during cleaning or maintenance process without affecting the flow of the entire electrodialysis process.

18. An electrodialysis system as claimed in Claim 11 wherein said round shaped electrodialysis system can be applied to conventional electrodialysis or bipolar electrodialysis or combination of both.

Description:
PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC ACIDS FROM AN INTEGRATION OF SOLAR OR FUEL CELL WITH ELECTRODIALYSIS

SYSTEM

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a process for the production of organic acids from an integration of solar or fuel cell with a round shaped electrodialysis system, whereby separation and purification of organic acids is carried out using an electrodialysis system after the fermentation process. Said electrodialysis process is attached to a fuel cell or solar cell system for the sole reason of providing a direct current (DC) power supply to the round shaped electrodialysis system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Organic acids such as succinic acids, lactic acids and citric acids are typically prepared from a particular feedstock such as starch, sucrose, glucose or biomass such as seaweed wastes and the likes through a microbial fermentation process. In the course of producing organic acids, the fermentation process is relatively simple. The fermentation is usually carried out at neutral or nearly neutral pH, whereby the fermentation broth may contain cells, proteins and other undesirable materials, while salts of organic acids rather than the acids themselves are inevitably produced. Therefore, the fermentation process has to be integrated with an efficient separation and purification process in order to obtain a high yield and high purity of organic acids.

Generally, electrodialysis is used as a means of separating and purifying the organic acids after the fermentation process. The objective is to separate the unwanted impurities from the desired product and to convert the salts obtained into the free acids. Electrodialysis is a well known separation process, whereby ionized compounds are separated from non-ionized or weakly ionized compounds in aqueous solutions through ion exchange membranes within an electric field.

The current electrodialysis process involves the use of a direct current (DC) to conduct the separation and purification of the organic acids. In order to convert the alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), a transformer is required. This system has proved to be very power intensive as it requires a high electric energy consumption to carry out the said process. It would hence be extremely advantageous if the above shortcoming is alleviated by using alternative technologies such as using renewable energies as a more viable replacement or at least to reduce the overall energy consumption through machine modification.

In view of the above, the present invention describes the potentials of using an integration of solar cells or fuel cells to provide a direct current (DC) power supply to the round shaped electrodialysis system, which offers advantages concerning space requirements, performance and maintenance if compare to the conventional flat shaped electrodialysis cells. Hence, this will able to save the cost of utilities further for the production of organic acids. The entire process of this invention is relatively low cost while at the same time, it yields a highly purified and concentrated product that utilizes low energy consumption, in addition to it being able to increase the efficiency of both product separation and purification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is the primary aim of the present invention to provide a process for the production of organic acids wherein said process is using an integration of solar or fuel cells to provide a direct current (DC) power supply to the round shaped electrodialysis cell system. It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a process for the production of organic acids wherein said process can be carried out throughout the day regardless of sunlight availability.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a process for the production of organic acids wherein said process is able to reduce electricity consumption.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a process for the production of organic acids that is able to reduce the cost of utilities for the production of organic acids.

Moreover, a further object of the present invention is to provide a process for the production of organic acids wherein the efficiency of the separation process and the product purity is increased.

Besides, another object of the present invention is to provide a process for the production of organic acids which is safe and easy to handle.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process for the production of organic acids wherein the number of process steps has been reduced compared to conventional methods. Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for the production of organic acids wherein the process can be carried out continuously or back wise.

Additional objects of the invention will become apparent with an understanding of the following detailed description of the invention or upon employment of the invention in actual practice.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention the following is provided:

A process for the production of organic acids comprising the steps of, i. growing microorganism in a fermenter containing nutrient medium to obtain an aqueous product with its organic ii. pre-filtering of said aqueous product with its organic salt before electrodialysis; iii. introducing said aqueous product with its organic salt into the electrodialysis system; iv. applying an electrical current to convert the organic salt into organic acid; characterized in that said electrical current are obtained from a fuel cell system by means of using hydrogen gas as fuel to supply a direct current (DC) to the electrodialysis system.

In a second embodiment of the present invention, the following is provided:

A process for the production of organic acids comprising the steps of, i. growing microorganism in a fermenter containing nutrient medium to obtain an aqueous product with its organic salt; ii. pre-filtering of said aqueous product with its organic salt before electrodialysis; iii. introducing said aqueous product with its organic salt into the electrodialysis system; iv. applying an electrical current to convert the organic salt into organic acid; characterized in that said electrical current are obtained from a direct current (DC) power unit or a power source in order to supply a direct current to the electrodialysis system. In a third embodiment of the present invention, the following is provided:

An electrodialysis system comprising, at least a pair of electrodes;

a series of ion exchange membranes;

at least one liquid inlet;

at least one liquid outlet;

characterized in that

said electrodialysis system is a round shaped electrodialysis system comprises of a plurality of electrodialysis cell units which is packed in a circular manner with each electrodialysis cell unit arranged vertically and connected to a structural frame.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other aspect of the present invention and their advantages will be discerned after studying the Detailed Description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 illustrates the schematic process flow diagram for the production of organic acids such as lactic acids from an integration of solar or fuel cell with electrodialysis system.

FIG. 2 shows the design of the round shaped electrodialysis system.

FIG. 3 illustrates the exemplary schematic process flow diagram for the production of succinic acid and biodegradable polybutylene succinate (PBS) bio-resins.

FIG. 4 shows the integration of solar panels with electrodialysis system.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of conventional electrodialysis in the round shaped electrodialysis system.

FIG.6 shows a schematic diagram of bipolar electrodialysis in the round shaped electrodialysis system.

FIG. 7 shows a square-shaped conventional electrodialysis module.

Table 1 shows the results obtained from the electrodialysis process of succinic acid with and without solar energy. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be understood by the person having ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be practised without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures and/ or components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the invention.

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of the embodiments thereof, given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are not drawn to scale.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a schematic process flow diagram for the production of organic acids, for example lactic acid from the integration of solar or fuel cell electrodialysis system. Carbon feedstock or carbon source such as glucose, starch and biomass like seaweed wastes can be used as the raw material to be supplied to the fermentation system along with a microorganism that is capable of producing organic acids. Said fermentation system is also integrated with membrane filtration system to remove the unwanted impurities. Upon completion of the fermentation process, organic salt is obtained, whereby the said organic salt-containing aqueous stream is subjected to a separation and purification system by using the electrodialysis system. Said electrodialysis system may include the usage of conventional electrodialysis cells or bipolar electrodialysis cells or a combination of both to recover and to concentrate the salt from the fermentation broth to form an aqueous organic acid solution. As both of the conventional electrodialysis and bipolar electrodialysis are housed in two separate bodies, both are connected via regular connecting means or tubing system.

Referring now to FIG. 2 which illustrates a design of the round shaped electrodialysis system for conventional electrodialysis. It shall be understood that the design of the round shaped elelctrodialysis system is not only restricted for conventional electrodialysis, but also can be applied to bipolar electrodialysis. Typically, an electrodialysis cell comprises of a pair of electrodes, a series of ion exchange membranes, at least one liquid inlet, and at least one liquid outlet. When said round shaped electrodialysis system is applied for conventional electrodialysis, said liquid inlet comprises of diluate stream inlet (204) and concentrate stream inlet (205), said liquid outlet comprises of diluate stream outlet (208) and concentrate stream outlet (209). Likewise, when said round shaped electrodialysis system is applied for bipolar electrodialysis, said liquid inlet comprises of base stream inlet (601), acid stream inlet (602) and salt stream inlet (603), said liquid outlet comprises of base stream outlet (604), acid stream outlet (605) and rinse water stream outlet (606).

Said round shaped electrodialysis system of the current invention comprises of a plurality of electrodialysis cell units (201) which is packed in a circular manner with each electrodialysis cell unit (201) arranged vertically in a similar fashion. Each of the said plurality of electrodialysis cell unit (201) comprises of a plurality of ion exchange membranes or ion selective membranes such as anion exchange membranes, cation exchange membranes and bipolar membranes depending on its application. For example, conventional electrodialysis comprises of at least one anion exchange membrane (501) and at least one cation exchange membrane (503), whilst bipolar electrodialysis comprises of at least one anion exchange membrane (607), at least one cation exchange membrane (608) and at least one bipolar membrane (609). Said plurality of electrodialysis cell units (201) are connected to a structural frame (202), whereby at said structural frame (202), provided is at least a pair of electrodes (203), at least one liquid inlet and at least one liquid outlet. Alternatively, said structural frame (202) comprises of top portion (206) and base portion (207) so that one end of said electrodialysis cell units (201) are connected to said top portion (206) and the other end of said electrodialysis cell units (201) are connected to said base portion (207). Preferably said liquid inlet is located at the top portion (206) of said structural frame (202) and said liquid outlet is located at the base portion (207) of said structural frame (202) or vice versa. Said round shape electrodialysis system is connected to a power source which is used to supply an electrical current to said electrodialysis system to convert the organic salt into organic acid. Said electrical current can be obtained from various sources such as a direct current (DC) power unit, a solar powered device, a photovoltaic module or a fuel cell system as long as a direct current (DC) is supplied to said electrodialysis system.

Said round shaped electrodialysis system of the current invention is unlike conventional electrodialysis module which would sometimes be square or rectangular in shape. FIG. 7 illustrated a square-shaped conventional electrodialysis module. The shape being circular in nature will not only provide greater utilization of surface area but also maximizes the use of the entire area of the electrodialysis module. This can be attributed to a greater surface to volume ratio compared to conventional electrodialysis module. As such, with the optimum use of space, more electrodialysis cell units can be packed within a fixed area in comparison to the conventional electrodialysis module. Through this, both the economies of scale and process yields can be significantly improved without affecting the integrity of the electrodialysis module in its entirety. Moreover, each individual electrodialysis cell unit (201) placed within said round shaped electrodialysis module can be independently and individually removed to facilitate cleaning or maintenance purposes without affecting the flow of the entire electrodialysis process. What this entails is that there will be no significant downtime affecting the said process in contrast to the conventional electrodialysis design, which needs to be shut down prior to the removal of any electrodialysis cell unit. Not only will this affect the production process flow in terms of cost and yield but also significantly prolong the duration for the entire process flow. Said round shaped electrodialysis module further comprises of an automated control switch (not shown) whereby before the removal of a particular electrodialysis cell unit (201), said automated control switch can be activated to terminate the electrical current flow into the particular electrodialysis cell unit while at the same time, stop any incoming or exit flow of any fluid stream. This will ensure that the electrodialysis cell unit can be removed safely and appropriately without affecting the operation of other electrodialysis cell units.

Both of the said conventional electrodialysis and bipolar electrodialysis are solar-powered round shaped electrodialysis systems which use only a direct current (DC) as the power source. At the said electrodialysis system, there is a fuel cell system which is connected to the said electrodialysis system to a direct current (DC) supply and to the said electrodialysis system. Said fuel cell system is also an electrochemical cell system which can continuously convert the chemical energy like hydrogen and oxygen gases within the proton exchange membranes in the fuel cell into electrical energy. The hydrogen and oxygen gases which are required for the reactions are supplied to the said fuel cell system. Said fuel cell system comprises of two electrodes and an electrolyte which is able to generate a direct current (DC) by means of using hydrogen gas as fuel. One of these electrodes functions as a cathode on which a substance is electrochemically reduced while correspondingly, on the other electrode, which is an anode, the substance is electrochemically oxidized. Typically, the said fuel cell system can generate power by supplying fuel and oxidizer; therefore, the said fuel cell system has the advantage of being capable of generating power continuously by replenishing or replacing fuel. Said use of hydrogen gas as fuel can be obtained from sources such as solar panels, natural gas or biofuel reformer from palm oil and other sources which are able to produce hydrogen.

Referring now to FIG. 3, depicting an exemplary schematic process flow diagram for the production of succinic acid and biodegradable polybutylene succinate (PBS) bio-resins, carbon feedstock or carbon source such as glucose, starch and biomass from seaweed wastes can be used as the raw material and nitrogen source such as corn steep liquor or yeast extract are fermented in a fermentor with a microorganism that is capable of producing succinic acid. One of the suitable microorganisms is the wild type strain of Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens. The fermentor is run under controlled conditions with the required nutrients (for example magnesium sulphate) and carbon dioxide to produce a high yield of succinate. Preferably said anaerobic fermentation is carried out at 39 °C with a tolerance range of temperature from 38 °C to 41 °C and carbon dioxide gas is used to maintain the anaerobic conditions. The optimal pH range was determined to be in the range of 5.8 to 6.4. Typically, a sudden drop of pH may cause product inhibition due to the acidic condition that would pose a non-favorable condition for this microorganism to grow. Seeing that the said mode of fermentation is anaerobic, oxygen must be eliminated by replenishing the fermenter with an inert gas such as nitrogen, N 2 . The concentration of carbon dioxide also should be maintained to prevent other by-products formation such as lactic, acetic, and formic acid. The fermentor is then integrated with a membrane filtration system. There are different types of membrane separation system such as microfiltration membranes, nanofiltration membranes and electrodialysis membranes system, whereby the type of membrane used depends on the types of organic acids that are to be produced. In the present invention, an alternative direct current (DC) power unit or a power source is connected to the said electrodialysis system to supply a direct current (DC) to the said round shaped electrolysis system. The said power source includes a solar powered device or a photovoltaic module, which directly converts energy from the sun to the direct current (DC) power through a plurality of solar cells as illustrated in FIG. 4.

The solar power source comes from a solar powered device or a photovoltaic module which converts energy from the sun to an electrical DC power through a plurality of solar cells or solar panels. With that, by using the combinator (401), all current produced by each solar panel would be combined together to generate high voltage. The charge controller (403) would then limit the current flowing into the battery bank (405) where all of the solar power could be stored. The conventional transformer and inverter would not be used in the said system due to the direct current (DC) produced that can only be utilized directly by the round shaped electrodialysis system.

Upon completion of the fermentation process, succinate salts together with some impurities are obtained. Said succinate salt-containing aqueous stream is subjected to a separation and purification system which includes the use of both conventional electrodialysis and bipolar electrodialysis to recover and to concentrate the succinate from the fermentation broth in order to form an aqueous succinic acid solution.

Referring now to FIG. 5, depicting a schematic diagram of conventional electrodialysis in the round shaped electrodialysis system, which is the most common application of electrodialysis used for the concentration and dilution of electrolytes, the said conventional electrodialysis comprises of at least one anode, at least one cathode and a plurality of ion exchange membranes or ion selective membranes which are the anion exchange membranes and cation exchange membranes. Said conventional electrodialysis is an electrochemical separation process in which electrically charged species are separated from an aqueous solution into another by permeating one or more ion exchange membranes, under the influence of an electrical potential difference. Therefore, when producing organic acids such as succinic acid, crude aqueous succinic acid is introduced to the said conventional electrodialysis through diluate stream inlet (204). At the end of the conventional electrodialysis process, the obtained succinate salt is discharged through concentrate stream outlet (209) and is then introduced to bipolar electrodialysis through salt stream inlet (603) to produce purified aqueous succinic acid. The type of ion exchange membranes to be used depends on the function and application of the said conventional electrodialysis. The said anion exchange membrane (501) and said cation exchange membrane (503) to be used in the process of the present invention may be from any one of those commercially available in the market.

Referring now to FIG. 6, showing a schematic diagram of bipolar electrodialysis in the round shaped electrodialysis system, the said bipolar electrodialysis comprises of at least one anode, at least one cathode, at least one bipolar membrane (609), at least one anion exchange membrane (606) and at least one cation exchange membrane (607). Said bipolar electrodialysis can be used to produce acids and bases from the corresponding salt solution. For example, under the influence of an electric field, the salt anion (Cb) passes through the anion exchange membrane (607) into the acid compartment and combines with protons generated by the bipolar membrane (609) to form the acid (HC1). Simultaneously the salt cation (Na + ) passes through the cation exchange membrane (608) and forms sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in the base compartment by association with the hydroxyl ions (OH ) provided by the bipolar membrane (609). Similarly, the said bipolar electrodialysis undergoes the same process when producing organic acids such as succinic acid. Under the influence of an electrical potential difference, succinate ions migrate toward the anode which is positively charged. These anions pass through the positively charged anion exchange membrane (606), but are prevented from further migration toward the anode by the negatively charged cation exchange membrane and therefore stay in the acid stream, which later becomes more concentrated with the accumulation of anions. At the end of the bipolar electrodialysis process, organic acids such as succinic acid is produced and is discharged from said bipolar electrodialysis system through acid stream outlet (605).

From the previous experiments, the effect of using different feeds or diluate compartment concentrations were studied. It was found that the higher liquid concentration in the diluate compartment, the easier it would be for the concentration to achieve about 200 g/L at the end of the process. This is due to the water transport phenomenon in the electrodialysis membranes, which causes the dilution of the product concentration in the concentrate compartment as well as due to the back diffusion of the high product concentration from the concentrate compartment to the diluate compartment. Therefore, the operating conditions are the same depending on the type of production processes and the type of desired products for both conventional electrodialysis and bipolar electrodialysis with regards to the production of succinic acid.

Referring now to Table 1 showing the results obtained from the electrodialysis process of succinic acid using solar energy and without using solar energy, it was found that the succinate ions from concentrate stream increased from 142.8 g/L to 194.4 g/L and the total succinate ions that has been transferred from the diluate stream to concentrate stream was 51.6 g/L throughout the electrodialysis process duration of 75 minutes. It was also found that the succinate ions in the concentrate stream increased from 100.2 g/L to 146.7 g/L and the total succinate ions that has been transferred from the diluate stream to concentrate stream was 46.5 g/L in the electrodialysis process duration of 75 minutes. From the obtained results, it can be observed that the production yields for both results are very similar. However, the overall energy consumption was 0.169kWhr/kg for using the present invention, which is about 5 - 10% lower than the conventional methods. Therefore it can be concluded that the round shaped electrodialysis system that is integrated with solar or fuel cells can be used to separate and concentrate the sodium succinate, which was obtained from the fermentation of succinic acid, whereby sodium hydroxide was used to control the pH during the fermentation process.

After the said process of bipolar electrodialysis, crystallization of succinic acid was carried out from the highly concentrated solution obtained. The said crystallization of succinic acid was carried out in a crystallizer at 30 °C. While the description is towards the production of succinic acids, the present invention is not restricted to this but can be alternatively applied to the production of other organic acids such as lactic acid and citric acid. The separation and purification process using the said round shaped electrodialysis cells system can also be applied in food manufacturing to produce a high quality desired product by removing unwanted biomass.

In addition, by integrating a fuel cell system with the round shaped electrodialysis cells system, the issue of the lack or absence of sunlight is resolved as the hydrogen and oxygen can be recombined in a fuel cell to power the electrodialysis system at night when the solar energy is not readily available. Both hydrogen and oxygen are accumulated during the day from the excessive electricity generating capacity of the solar cell system, which will then be served as fuel in the fuel cell system to power the operation of the electrodialysis system overnight. Hence, the integration of a fuel cell system with an electrodialysis system will also further resolve the application of a transformer to convert the alternating current (AC) to a direct current (DC) power supply. Said integration of solar or fuel cell with an electrodialysis system is not restricted to the round shaped electrodialysis system but can be alternatively applied to other conventional electrodialysis system which may be square or rectangular in shape.

In terms of the power supply, the present invention utilizes a renewable energy source compared to that of conventional means of using fossil fuels, which may require a number of additional steps in the distillation process to obtain the desired fuel which will then be needed to be converted into electricity. It takes additional time, steps and costs relative to the present invention. For both the purification and concentration steps, the present invention suggests combining electrodialysis and an advanced membrane system, which will inevitably reduce the total number of steps. In contrast with the traditional method, the present invention undergoes fewer steps followed by a liquid-solid separation phase and crystallization. Clearly, the present invention reduces the number of overall steps in the purification and concentration section of the production process. In terms of continuity, the present invention proposes the use of both solar and fuel cell as the primary energy supplier which can produce energy continuously due to its renewable traits. As such, the production process of organic acids can constantly be carried out.

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention and its advantages have been disclosed in the above Detailed Description, the invention is not limited thereto but only by the scope of the appended claim.