Precipitation of Mandelic Acid with a Supercritical Antisolvent Process: Experimental and Theoretical Analysis, Optimization, and Scaleup

ÁNGEL MARTÍN; LAURA GUTIÉRREZ; FACUNDO MATTEA; MARÍA JOSÉ COCERO

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Año: 2007 vol. 46 p. 1552 - 1552

n experimental and theoretical analysis of the precipitation of mandelic acid with a semicontinuous supercritical antisolvent (SAS) process is presented. The experimental section comprises a study of the effect of different operating parameters on particle size, including pressure, temperature, solution concentration, and flow rates. Prismatic or needlelike particles with lengths of 30-200 μm have been obtained, with precipitation yields between 20% and 80%. The parameter with a stronger influence on particle size is temperature, while an increase in the initial concentration allows a large increase in the precipitation yield with small variations in particle size. Variations in the injection velocities in the nozzle had only a minor influence on particle size. In the theoretical section the application of a detailed mathematical model of the SAS process to this system is discussed. The model is used for the interpretation of the different experimental trends and to propose the o