Suspension Melt Crystallization Technology for Purification of Lactideintermediate of PLA
Suspension Melt Crystallization (SMC) is one kind of the leading state of the art separation technology for the achievement of high product purity against a low energy consumption, in a sustainable way. Comparing with alternative purification technologies such as (vacuum) distillation and layer melt crystallization, the potential energy savings in the range between 50 to even 90% are quite typical for SMC, varying from product/case to case. Sustainability is an important characteristic of SMC, driven mainly by renewable electricity, no need process aids such as solvents or adsorbents. For L-Lactide (intermediate of PLA) purification, a special advantage is that crude material loss from side-reaction could be reduced by 5-10% by using SMC replacing layer melt crystallization and/or partially replacing distillation, exact value depending on the exact hybrid process configuration.