An electro-membrane reactor with four compartments (EMR-4) (anolyte, catholyte and comp. 1 and 2) based on in-house-prepared cation- and anion-exchange membrane (CEM and AEM, respectively) was developed to achieve separation and recovery of glutamic acid (GAH) from its sodium salt by in situ ion substitution and acidification. The physicochemical and electrochemical properties of CEM and AEM were characterized and its suitability was assessed in operating environment. The separation of GA(-) from the mixture of nonionic organic compounds and further ion substitution was achieved by EMR4. But the higher energy consumption (5.75 kWh/kg of GAH produced), low current efficiency (50.5%) and recovery of GAH (57.2%) in this process were main obstacles for the industrial exploration of the process. Latter, electro-membrane reactor with three compartments (EMR-3) (anolyte, catholyte and central compartment) was developed based on CEMs for only in situ ion substitution of GANa to achieve GAH, in which GA- was not allowed for electro-migration from its feed compartment. CE and recovery of GAH were close to 73% and 96% that indicate the suitability of the EMR-3 process for industrial application over the EMR-4. It was concluded that EMR-3 was efficient as compared to EMR-4 for separation and recovery of GAH from fermentation broth by in situ ion substitution in eco-friendly manner. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.