Effects of Precipitated Calcium Carbonate Morphology on the Synthesis of Calcium Lactate

Abstract

Calcium lactate was prepared by neutralization of lactic acid and precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC). And, effects of PCC morphology (calcite and aragonite) on calcium lactate by the solution process was investigated experimentally. Despite the slow forming rate at the initial stage, the final yield of calcium lactate appeared higher when calcite was used. Therefore, the maximum yield of calcium lactate using aragonite was 85.0% and that using calcite was 88.7%, respectively. For both cases, the optimum temperature for the preparation appeared at around 60°C. Furthermore, increase of lactic acid concentration over 2.0 mol% increased slurry viscosity and deteriorated mass transfer, which resulted in low yield of calcium lactate for both cases. SEM analyses showed that the prepared calcium lactate appeared as plate-like crystal form, irrespective of PCC morphologies, reaction temperatures and concentrations of lactic acid.