Pilot plant scale extraction of alginates from Macrocystis pyrifera 3. Precipitation, bleaching and conversion of calcium alginate to alginic acid

Abstract

Three steps of the alginate production process were studied at pilot plantlevel. The effect of the amount of calcium chloride used during theprecipitation was measured in terms of filtration time of the precipitatedcalcium alginate. Three different proportions of calcium chloride per gramof alginate were tested. The best proportion used was 2.2 parts ofcalcium chloride per one part of alginate, yielding a filtration rate of 97.9L min^-1 on a screen area of 1.32 m². The method ofadding the solutions and the degree of mixing are discussed as other factorsaffecting the precipitation step. The effect of bleaching the calciumalginate with sodium hypochlorite (5%) was studied. Seven proportions,ranging from 0 to 0.77 mL of sodium hypochlorite per gram of sodiumalginate were tested. The effect of hypochlorite was compared foralginates with three different viscosities. Using alginates with mediumviscosity (300–500 mPa s), the best proportion was 0.4 mL hypochloriteper gram of alginate, yielding an alginate of light cream color with 20%less viscosity than the control. Alginates with lower viscosity showed asmaller loss of viscosity. The effect of pH during conversion of calciumalginate to alginic acid was determined using four combinations of pH,ranging from 2.2 to 1.6, in three acid washings. The extent of conversionwas determined by measuring the percent reduction of the alginate viscosity(RV) in 1% solution before and after adding a sequestrant of calcium. When a pH 1.8 or 1.6 was used for each washing, only two washings werenecessary to produce a RV lower than 40% (maximum recommended). The use of pH 2 required three acid washings to produce the same effect. The pH 2.2 did not remove enough calcium, even with three washings,the RV of the resulting sodium alginate being greater that 40%. Theresults of these experiments provide the information that producers needwhen deciding the best parameters to obtain a product with the desiredcharacteristics.