Patent ID: 6902917

Claim:
A process for the recovery of an organic acid from a fermentation broth comprising the steps of: (a) conducting a fermentation with an organic acid producing microorganism to produce a fermentation broth containing said organic acid and insolubles comprising all microbial biomass resulting from said fermentation with said microorganism; (b) drying said fermentation broth to obtain a dried product containing said organic acid and said insolubles comprising said microbial biomass, wherein said drying occurs without prior removal of any of said insolubles comprising said microbial biomass from said feremntation broth; (c) adding said organic acid-containing dried product of step (b) to a lower alcohol in the presence of a strong acid to obtain a solution containing said insolubles; and (d) removing said insolubles comprising said microbial biomass to obtain a solution comprising said organic acid.