African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12474

Full Length Research Paper

Separation and recovery of organic acids from fermented kitchen waste by an integrated process

Farah Nadia Omar, Nor’Aini Abdul Rahman*, Halimatun Saadiah Hafid, Phang Lai Yee and Mohd Ali Hassan
Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 04 September 2009
  •  Published: 02 November 2009

Abstract

 

Organic acids produced from anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste were recovered using a new integrated method which consisted of freezing and thawing, centrifugation, filtration and evaporation. The main organic acid produced was lactic acid (98%). After the freezing and thawing process, 73% of the total suspended solids were removed and the organic acids were elevated from 59.0 to 70 g/L. The evaporation technique was used to further concentrate the organic acids up to 224 g/L. Using the integrated recovery method, the reduction of the total suspended solids in the solution achieved was about 93%. The material balance for the recovery process was also presented.

 

Key words: Anaerobic digestion, kitchen waste, organic acids, recovery.