Synergistic organic liquid formulation for succinic acid extraction from simulated aqueous solution

Abstract

Bio-succinic acid (SA) is a new compound that will replace petroleum based succinic acid. The application of bio-based succinic acid is still restricted due to its excessive downstream processing cost. Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) is one of the promising methods for the successful extraction of SA. Single extractant in the LLE formulation commonly had drawbacks of long extraction time and tiny loading capacity. The aim of this study is to create synergistic formulation to enhance the SA extraction performance. The diluent is fixed as palm oil as the characteristic shows that it is safer, renewable, and non-toxic to environment. Four different types of extractants including Aliquat 336, Trioctylamine (TOA), Tributylamine (TBA) and Tributyl-phosphate (TBP) was tested to find the best combination of synergist extractants. The result shows that almost 100 % of SA was extracted using synergistic mixture of TOA and Aliquat 336 at 0.2M with synergistic coefficient (SC) of 640. In conclusion, synergistic mixture has high potential to extract SA.