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 −3 due to the limit on solubility.