Production of Sebacic Acid Using Two-Phase Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis

To produce a water-insoluble acid-sebacic acid-in an environmentally friendly manner, two-phase bipolar membrane electrodialysis (TPBMED) was proposed to convert sodium sebacate into sebacic acid in ethanol-water mixtures. The results indicated that BP-C configuration (BP, bipolar membrane: C, cation-exchange membrane) was better than the other configurations: BP-A (A, anion-exchange membrane), BP-A-C, and BP-A-A. In a TPBMED stack of BP-C configuration, the sodium sebacate could be totally transformed to sebacic acid with a current efficiency of 94% and energy consumption of 2.2 kW h kg(-1). The process cost was estimated to be $0.57 kg(-1). Nonetheless, to simultaneously dissolve sebacic sodium and sebacic acid, the ethanol content in the mixture was controlled at 60 v/v %, and the maximal concentration of sebacic acid produced was only 0.13 mol dm(-1) due to the limit on solubility.