Method of making bleached microcrystalline cellulose
AssigneeFMC Corporation
InventorsZheng Tan, Simon Eustace, Michael Sestrick, Jeremy Ondov
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Abstract
A method of producing bleached microcrystalline cellulose which method comprises neutralizing or alkalizing an acidic microcrystalline production reaction mixture slurry, typically produced by acid hydrolysis or by electronic beam irradiation, followed by adding an oxidant to such reaction mixture. This practice of this method permits the production of microcrystalline cellulose having desirable color stability as well as compression characteristics suitable for pharmaceutical binder use from paper grade and other low purity pulps.
Claims18
A method of making microcrystalline cellulose comprising the steps of:
- a) Providing a cellulosic pulp and subjecting such pulp to a microcrystalline cellulose production process to create an acidic product reaction mixture slurry;
- b) Adding a sufficient amount of an alkaline material to the acidic product reaction mixture slurry to produce a neutralized product reaction mixture having a pH of between 7 and 12;
- c) Adding oxidant to the neutralized product reaction mixture form a bleached product reaction mixture comprising bleached microcrystalline cellulose;
- and
- d) Isolating the bleached microcrystalline cellulose from the bleached product reaction mixture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.