Process design scheme on the feasibility of 1-decanol as a solvent in liquid-liquid extraction to recover anhydrous citric acid from water

Abstract

Abstract In this present study, we developed a theoretical process design scheme (PDS) to check the feasibility of solvent 1-decanol to recover citric acid from water by liquid-liquid extraction followed by series of unit operations such as vacuum evaporator, crystallizer, and filter using ASPEN PLUS TM. Literature suggested that the 1- decanol can serve as a solvent to recover the citric acid from water. However, the conditions maintain for the maximum production of anhydrous citric acid have been reported under the equilibrium condition. We incorporated the binary interaction parameters of the NRTL model in the simulation, as reported in the literature. The separation factor obtained from the simulation is compared and validated with the published literature data under a room temperature (25◸C). We performed the mass balance and sensitivity analysis for the developed PDS. The results show that the maximum quantity of anhydrous citric acid is obtained in the extract phase when the solvent to feed ratio is more than six.