Process and an equipment for producing crystalline citric acid from solutions of alkaline citrates
AssigneesCompagnia Tecnica Industrie Petroli S.p.A., Liquichimica S.p.A.
InventorsPierluigi Canata, Giampiero Longobardi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for producing citric acid in crystalline form from solutions of alkaline citrates, comprising sequentially the stages of: A. partially converting by electrodialysis the alkaline citrate to citric acid; B. concentrating by hot fractional crystallization the solution of citric acid and alkaline citrate as obtained in (a); C. separating by centrifugation the crystalline citric acid from the concentrated solution coming from (b); D. re-cycling the mother liquors of crystallization residual from the separating operation (c) part to the electrodialysis stage (a) and part to the stage of crystallization (b).
Claims5
A process for producing citric acid in crystalline form from solutions of alkaline citrates, characterized in comprising sequentially the stages of:
- a. partially converting by electrodialysis the alkaline citrate to citric acid;
- b. concentrating by hot fractional crystallization the solution of citric acid and alkaline citrate as obtained in (a), heat for the crystallization being supplied by heat exchange from the hot cathodic solution of electrodialysis stage (a);
- c. separating by centrifugation the crystalline citric acid from the concentrated solution coming from (b);
- d. re-cycling the mother liquors of crystallization residual from the separating operation (c) part to the electrodialysis stage (a) and part to the stage of crystallization (b).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.