I&EC 55 |
| Recovery of lactic acid using reversible chemical complexation with solid adsorbents has been found to be a promising alternative to the conventional precipitation process by calcium salts. The use of adsorbents could reduce chemical consumptions substantially and offer the high contacting area for extraction. Polymeric anionic resins are generally used for this purpose, but organic solvent or strong basic agents are necessary for back extraction of lactic acid from these adsorbents. Therefore, the recovery process involves multiple steps including leaching of lactic acid from the acid-adsorbent complex, regeneration of adsorbents; and purification of lactic acid from organic solution or acidification of carboxylate salt solution. To address this problem, an active carbon-based adsorbent has been synthesized and applied to adsorption/desorption system in aqueous lactic acid solution in this study. Adsorbent having amine functional group was prepared simply by surface modification reaction on activated carbon. Adsorption behavior of lactic acid into the adsorbent was similar to that using polymeric adsorbents. On the other hand, since the adsorbent synthesized are based on thermostable active carbon, lactic acid-adsorbent complex could be thermally decomposed easily, thus allowing reduction of process steps. |
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IEC Poster Session
8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Tuesday, August 21, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster
Sci-Mix
Division of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry |