Nebraska Department of Economic Development

Nebraska Department of Economic Development, State of Nebraska, U.s.a.

Maria A Dean

Frederick W Wagner

Rebecca S De La Motte

Virginia H Stryker

The process uses two steps to separate the sugar ester from the crude sugar ester reaction product. The first step entails forming a precipitate of sugar ester from a mixture of alcohol, water and crude sugar ester reaction product. In a second subsequent step, the recovered sugar ester precipitate is washed with an organic solvent.

Separation and purification of sugar esters

This method for making sugar esters entails first reacting a sugar and an ter of that sugar having a degree of substitution greater than 2 with a Lewis acid or Lewis base catalyst in an organic solvent to form a sugar ester having a degree of substitution up to 2 and recovering the sugar ester having a degree of substitution up to 2 at ambient temperature. The recovery step must be conducted at a temperature below the distillation or boiling temperature of the organic solvent or else the DS of the resulting sugar ester will be greater than 2. This process is especially suited for sucrose esters. The reaction between the sugar and the sugar ester is conducted in the absence of a methyl ester of a fatty acid.

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Lincoln, NE, United States of America

Maria A Dean