1

3-Propanediol

traditionally obtained from fossils

has numerous industrial applications

including use in the production of high performance polymers. The microbial production of 1

3-propanediol presents several opportunities

and the final purity grade determines its price and commercial viability. The development of novel separation technology could improve the economic viability of the bioproduction of 1

3-propanediol. Thus

we investigated salting-out extraction as a novel process for 1

3-propanediol recovery from fermentation broth. Initially

a screening for the best salt/solvent combination was conducted and then optimized using the response surface methodology. The solvents studied were methanol

ethanol

isopropanol and acetone

and the salts examined were K

2

HPO

4

Na

2

CO

3

K

2

CO

3

(NH

4

)

2

SO

4

NaHPO

4

K

3

PO

4

and C

6

H

5

NaO

7

. The optimal extraction system consisted of 34 wt% K

3

PO

4

28 wt% ethanol

and 38 wt% fermentation broth containing 23.0 g·L

-1

1

3-propanediol

which gave the highest partition coefficient of 33 and recovery yield of 97%. The results demonstrated that salting-out extraction was a promising method for 1

3-propanediol recovery from fermentation broth.