Separation of 5‐aminovalerate from its bioconversion liquid by macroporous adsorption resin: mechanism and dynamic separation

BACKGROUND 5‐aminovalerate (5‐AVA) is the precursor of valerolactam, a potential building block for producing nylon 5, and also regarded as a potential C5 chemical platform. Although 5‐AVA bioproduction has been developed, few studies have emphasized the separation of 5‐AVA from the bioconversion liquid. RESULTS An effective and benign method for separation of 5‐AVA from its bioconversion liquid was proposed based on chromatography technology using macroporous adsorption resin AK‐1. This work focuses on explosion of the adsorption mechanism and optimization of the operating conditions. Freundlich model and thermodynamics results showed that the adsorption affinity of 5‐AVA to the AK‐1 resin was weaker than that of l ‐lysine. Combination of the characterization results of AK‐1 resin with the physicochemical properties of 5‐AVA and l ‐lysine, the adsorption mechanism was proposed as meso‐micropore diffusion, and hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic effects. In dynamic studies, a 5‐AVA purity of 99.3% and yield of 92% was obtained at an operating temperature of 353.15 K on a 40:1 chromatographic column eluted by deionized water. The residual 5‐AVA and l ‐lysine were recovered by 1 mol L –1 HCl, which can be used as a feed material in the 5‐AVA conversion process repeatedly. CONCLUSION An innovative benign efficient environmentally process for recovery of 5‐AVA from the bioconversion liquid was developed based on a macroporous resin AK‐1. Compared with ion exchange resins, macroporous resins can efficiently adsorb 5‐AVA, whereas salt ions cannot be retained. This clean and efficient method provides a promising strategy for separating similar biochemical products. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry