In the field of modern biosynthesis, benzylamine, as an important organic synthesis intermediate, has broad application prospects in many industries such as medicine, military industry, and agriculture. With the in-depth promotion of the concept of green chemistry, green synthesis routes represented by microbial fermentation are gradually becoming an important development direction for benzylamine production. However, how to efficiently extract and purify benzylamine from complex fermentation broth is still a key problem restricting its industrial application.
Currently, liquid liquid extraction combined with vacuum distillation has become one of the mainstream separation methods. Among the many extractants, dichloromethane has been widely studied and used due to its high extraction efficiency, moderate boiling point and low cost. However, in actual operation, traditional separatory funnels or static mixers have problems such as low mass transfer efficiency, severe emulsification, and complex operation, which limits the stability and continuity of the overall process.
Therefore, applying centrifugal extraction technology to the process of dichloromethane extraction of fermentation broth can not only significantly improve the extraction efficiency and product recovery rate, but also achieve continuous and automated operation, providing strong support for the large-scale green production of benzylamine. The following three aspects elaborate on why the centrifugal extraction process should be preferred for the operation of dichloromethane extraction of fermentation broth:
- High mass transfer efficiency, significantly improving extraction rate
As a non-polar solvent, dichloromethane has good solubility for benzylamine, but the interfacial tension between it and the aqueous phase of the fermentation broth is large. It is difficult to achieve rapid and sufficient contact between the two phases by relying solely on static mixing or stirring. The centrifugal extraction equipment generates a centrifugal force field (up to thousands of times the gravity) through high-speed rotation, which greatly enhances the shearing effect between the two phases of liquid, making the material instantly dispersed into micron-level or even nano-level droplets, greatly increasing the contact area between the two phases.
This efficient mass transfer mechanism means that even under the same pH value and the same relative ratio conditions, the centrifugal extraction process can reach extraction equilibrium faster than conventional methods, thereby improving the primary extraction rate of benzylamine. Experiments show that under the optimized pH=11 condition, after three extractions with CWL-M centrifugal extraction and dichloromethane extraction by Zhengzhou Tiei Extraction, the total extraction rate can reach more than 98%, which is much higher than the level that can be achieved by traditional methods.
In addition, centrifugal force can also effectively inhibit the emulsification phenomenon caused by macromolecular substances such as proteins in the fermentation broth, reduce the loss caused by entrainment, and further improve the recovery rate of the target product.
- Realize continuous operation and improve process stability and scalability
Traditional extraction methods mostly use intermittent operations, such as batch extraction, static stratification, etc., which are not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also difficult to adapt to the needs of large-scale continuous industrial production. Especially when processing a large amount of fermentation broth, frequent batch switching and manual discharge not only affect production efficiency, but also easily introduce human errors, causing product quality fluctuations.
The centrifugal extraction equipment has the characteristics of continuous feeding and continuous discharging, and can operate for a long time under constant working conditions, which greatly improves the stability and repeatability of the entire extraction process. At the same time, the equipment has a compact structure and small footprint, which is convenient for system integration and automatic control, and is particularly suitable for building modular green production lines.
For example, in the 500mL scale fermentation broth treatment experiment used in the study, by setting reasonable flow rate, speed and processing time parameters, the continuous operation of the entire extraction process can be easily achieved. This provides a solid technical foundation for the future expansion of production capacity to 10,000 tons.
- Strong compatibility, helping green purification integration
In addition to the advantages of extraction itself, the centrifugal extraction process also has good process compatibility and subsequent coupling potential. After completing the efficient extraction, the benzylamine in the extract can be further purified by vacuum distillation. Studies have shown that under the conditions of vacuum degree 0.07MPa and temperature 30℃, the loss of benzylamine in the distillation process is the lowest, and the final product is confirmed to be high-purity benzylamine (purity>99%) by chromatography and mass spectrometry.
The centrifugal extractor has fully considered the chemical corrosion environment in terms of material and sealing design, and supports the safe operation of a variety of strong acids, strong bases and volatile solvents, especially for systems containing dichloromethane and other toxic systems. Assisted by CIP online cleaning, anti-leakage protection and other functions, it fully meets the requirements of GMP and environmental protection regulations. In addition, by replacing the weir plate, adjusting the speed and other methods, it can also flexibly cope with fermentation broth systems of different densities and viscosities, truly achieving "one machine for multiple uses", greatly expanding the application scope of this technology.
In summary, the application of centrifugal extraction technology in the extraction process of benzylamine in dichloromethane extraction fermentation broth not only significantly improves the extraction efficiency and product purity, but also achieves connection from laboratory to industrial production. High mass transfer efficiency, continuous operation, and excellent compatibility constitute the three core advantages of centrifugal extraction technology in this field.
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