• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2014

Recently, membranes are used for separation of biochemicals in biochemical industry. In this study, there is a special focus on the research that has been applied for membranes in the biochemical industry. Especially, membrane applications for pretreatment and fermentation process were also reviewed. Separation and purification of various biochemicals by membranes has been conducted. Membrane applications for biorefinery using lignocellulose were also reviewed.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.192-196
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• 2005

Chromatography has been a method of choice in the separation of complex biological mixtures for the analytical purpose in particular for the last half of century. In current years, chromatographic method extends its use to the preparative separation where the productivity per resin amount and solvent use become a matter of concern. Recently, simulated moving bed (SMB) method which claims high separation efficiency of the ideal counter-current moving bed chromatography has become a workhorse of preparative separation. SMB technology was developed in the early 1960s for large-scale hydrocarbon separation by UOP and approximately 120 Sorbex units have been licensed to date. Recently, SMB separation technology has been successfully extended from hydrocarbons and sugars to fine chemicals, particularly biochemicals, from laboratory to pilot to production plant. In this paper, the current status of SMB and its modifications were reviewed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.376-380
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• 2018

Microalgae produce not only lipids for biodiesel production but also valuable biochemicals which are often accumulated under cellular stress mediated by certain chemicals. While the microcarriers for the application of drug delivery systems for animal cells are widely studied, their applications into microalgal research or biorefinery are rarely investigated. Here we develope dual-functional magnetic microcapsules which work not only as flocculants for microalgal harvesting but also potentially as microcarriers for the controlled release of target chemicals stimulating microalgae to enhance the accumulation of valuable chemicals. Magnetic microcapsules are synthesized by layer-by-layer(LbL) coating of PSS-PDDA on $Fe_3O_4$ nanoparticle-embedded $CaCO_3$ microparticles followed by removing $CaCO_3$ sacrificial templates. The positively charged magnetic microcapsules flocculate microalgae by electrostatic interaction which are sequentially collected by the magnetophoretic separation. The microcapsules with a polycationic outer layer provide efficient binding sites for negatively charged microalgae and by that means are further utilized as a chemical-delivery and flocculation system for microalgal research and biorefineries.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.609-617
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• 2017

Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable resource for production of biofuels and biochemicals. Furfural (FF) is an important platform chemical catalytically derived from the hemicellulose fraction of biomass. Tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA) is a FF derivative and can be used as an eco-friendly solvent with thermal and chemical stability. Despite large numbers of experimental studies for catalytic conversion of FF to THFA, few research have conducted on the economic feasibility for large-scale THFA production from FF. At the stage of assessment of the potential for commercialization of conversion technology, a large-scale process study is required to identify technological bottleneck and to obtain information for solving scale-up problems. In this study, process simulation and technoeconomic evaluation for catalytic conversion of FF to THFA are performed, as the following three steps: integrated process design, heat integration, and economic evaluation. First, a large-scale process including conversion and separation processes is designed based on experimental results. When the FF processing rate is 255 tonnes per day, the FF-to-THFA yields are 63.2~67.9 mol%. After heat integration, the heating requirements are reduced by 14.4~16.4%. Finally, we analyze the cost drivers and calculate minimum selling price of THFA by economic evaluation. The minimum selling price of THFA for the developed process are $2,120~2,340 per tonne, which are close to the current THFA market price.