The Application of Electrodialysis to Desalting an Amino Acid Solution

One of the main difficulties in preparing pharmaceutical products is isolating them from aqueous solutions of high salt concentration, as a high purity must be obtained. Several methods that employ organic solvents are normally used. In this paper, a novel method, electrodialysis, is presented together with its application to the desalting of an industrial effluent comprising an amino acid (p-hydroxyphenylglycine) with a high salt content (ammonium sulfate and sodium dihydrogenphosphate). It was possible to remove more than 70% of the initial salt content. From this solution with a low salt content, it is possible to isolate the amino acid with a higher purity. This experiment will enable the student to gain a useful knowledge of this technique and to work with typical figures of merit of electrodialysis such as current efficiency, electrical energy consumption, production of the process, removal of salt, and loss of amino acid. In addition the student learns the use of chromatographic techniques applied to the analysis of amino acids (HPLC) and salts (IC).