Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Carboxymethyl cellulose purification by salting out ethanol

onurtosun - 23-12-2018 at 23:07

Hello everyone,

As well known, sodium chloride and sodium glycolate by-products are occured while producing sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (NaCMC). In this stage it is called technical grade NaCMC, which possess ~70% active matter content. For enrichment of NaCMC up to 90% active matter content, 70% ethyl alcohol has been using as a solvent for decades. After the purification process, ethyl alcohol is going to be distilled and re-used for the next purification.

In order to decreasing the costs of distillation, I have performed some laboratory experiments by using salt out technique on ethyl alcohol. I prefered potassium carbonate as deliquescence salt. Everything works great but I also want to reduce the potassium carbonate costs.

After adding the potassium carbonate to sodium chloride + sodium glycolate + 70 % ethanol solution, a distinct phase seperation is occured. Lower phase (water phase) contains most of the salts (sodium chloride + potassium carbonate + ~sodium glycolate). I want to gain potassium carbonate again from this solution. Actually if i could seperate sodium chloride and potassium carbonate effectively, everything would be fine.

Thanks in advence for your helps.