Author Spotlight: Optimizing Hollow-Fiber Membranes for Continuous Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Medium-Chain Fatty Acids

My research aimed to evaluate the efficiency of hollow-fiber membrane and the continuous liquid-liquid extraction of medium-chain fatty acid from fermentation broth. I seek to understand how this membrane differs from traditional techniques by optimizing the extraction process and determination of the scalability of this method for industrial use. Current experimental challenge include inefficient extraction of medium-chain fatty acid from fermentation broth, which often lead to the inhibition of the chain-elongation microbes.

Traditional techniques often face issues like batch-processing limitation, high energy consumption, and high solvent usage. Our protocol offers several advantages over traditional techniques. These include high selectivity and efficiency in extracting the medium-chain fatty acids from fermentation broths which leads to reduced solvent usage and continuous operation from batch processing.

Additionally, this method can easily be replicated for diverse applications.