Continuous Downstream Processing of Amino Acids in a Modular Miniplant

Global competition leads to a need for a fast time to market and increased resource efficiency. Continuous processing, module-based plant design, and multipurpose equipment are recently discussed approaches for the fine-chemical industry. As a representative, the downstream process of amino acid production is discussed herein. A conventional batch procedure was transferred to a continuous process and realized in a modular miniplant, which comprised of evaporation in a wiped-film evaporator, seeded cooling crystallization in a coiled tubular crystallizer, and solid/liquid separation on a vacuum belt filter. The operations were realized on-skid with individual automation systems and integrated sensors. L-Alanine was successfully processed in steady-state operation.