Treating kraft mill extract using bipolar membrane electrodialysis for the production of acetic acid

The objective of this work was to determine the process conditions for converting sodium acetate, the major component of alkaline hardwood extract, into acetic acid and sodium hydroxide using bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPMED). The effects of current density and sodium acetate concentration in the feed-salt solution were evaluated using synthetic sodium acetate solution in a feed and bleed mode. This mode of operation represents semibatch processing and was useful for determining the current efficiencies, energy consumption, and other system parameters for the production of about 160 g/L of acetic acid; maximum achievable concentration of acetic acid in electrodialysis; and 30 g/L of sodium hydroxide, which is the concentration sufficient for the extraction of sodium acetate from hardwood. The feed and bleed mode experiments performed at 60 mA/cm2 using 130 and 85 g/L sodium acetate as feed-salt solutions produced similar results, except for a small change in the amount of water transported into the acid and base compartments. The feed and bleed mode experiment performed at low current density of 40 mA/cm2 using 50 g/L sodium acetate as feed-salt solution produced almost similar quantities of acetic acid and sodium hydroxide as those in the other feed and bleed mode experiments. However, the energy consumption and current efficiencies were lower than those for the experiments performed at the current density of 60 mA/cm2.