Abstract
Lactic acid is of interest as the raw materials of polylactide that is a biodegradable polymer. For an effective purification of lactic acid, batch distillation with the simultaneous reactions was used. Two Oldershaw columns and reboilers were used for fractionation of methanol and reactions. Esterification reaction of lactic acid with methanol produced methyl lactate and water. The products of the esterification reaction, methyl lactate and water were transported to the reboiler of the hydrolysis part. In hydrolysis part, reaction of methyl lactate and water reproduced lactic acid and methanol. Methanol produced in the hydrolysis part and unreacted methanol in the esterification part were separated by distillation and recycled to the reboiler of the esterification part so that the esterification reaction would be stimulated. Thus, pure lactic acid solution remained in the reboiler of the hydrolysis part. The effect of the number of stages in column on the recovery yield was also investigated. In the operation with columns the recovery yield of lactic acid was improved. It is due to the fact that the columns improved the fractionation of components and stimulated the reactions in two parts.
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Abbreviations
- Ci :
-
Concentration of each component [mol/g]
- C c :
-
Concentration of catalyst [g-cat./g-sol.]
- E:
-
Activity energy [J/mol]
- HB:
-
Holdup of reboiler [g]
- k:
-
Reaction constant
- K:
-
Reaction equilibrium constant
- LB:
-
Flow rate of the stream transported from the esterification part to the hydrolysis part [mol/sec]
- R:
-
Reaction rate [mol/g sec]
- S:
-
Flow rate of the recycle stream from the top of the esterification part or the hydrolysis part [mol/sec]
- t:
-
Time [sec]
- i:
-
Index of components
- Est:
-
Esterification reaction part
- Hyd:
-
Hydrolysis reaction part
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Kim, J.Y., Kim, Y.J., Hong, W.H. et al. Recovery process of lactic acid using two distillation columns. Biotechnol. Bioprocess Eng. 5, 196–201 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02936594
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02936594