Process for recovering high-purity organic acid
AssigneeIdemitsu Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
InventorsAkihiro Shishikura, Hiroshi Kimbara, Katsuhisa Yamaguchi, Kunio Arai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a process for inexpensively and effectively recovering a high-purity organic acid, according to which a crude organic acid is subjected to extraction treatment with an organic solvent to obtain an organic solvent extract containing an organic acid; the organic solvent extract is mixed with a high-pressure gas to precipitate and separate impurities thereby obtaining a solution containing a high-purity organic acid; and the organic acid is separated from the solution to obtain a high-purity organic acid.
Claims19
A process for recovering a high-purity organic acid, which comprises
- (a) subjecting a crude organic acid mixture comprising an organic acid, said organic acid comprising a carboxylic acid having 3 to 20 carbon atoms which is a product of a fermentation process, to an extraction treatment with an organic solvent selected from the group consisting of alcohols, ketones and ethers to obtain an organic solvent extract containing the organic acid;
- (b) mixing the organic solvent extract with a high-pressure gas, said high pressure gas having a pressure not higher than critical pressure, said high pressure gas being selected from the group consisting of CO.sub.2, ethylene, propylene, N.sub.2 O and fluoromethane to precipitate and separate impurities, thereby obtaining a solution containing a high-purity organic acid;
- and
- (c) separating the organic acid from the solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.