LAUSR

The aim of this investigation is to recover lactic acid, which widely produced in aqueous solutions by fermentation processes, from water by Amberlite IRA-400. This separation is very important for the production of lactic acid because of the accumulation of lactic acid must be prevented for the fermentation process to be continued continuously. Amberlite IRA-400 is an ion-exchange resin used as an adsorbent in this separation study. Adsorption time, initial concentration of lactic acid, amount of Amberlite IRA-400 and temperature have been selected as the parameters affecting the adsorption process. The adsorption capacities of Amberlite IRA-400 under various conditions were detected and compared with each other. It has been determined that a significant lactic acid amount was recovered by Amberlite IRA-400. Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models were utilized to explain the adsorption mechanism. Kinetic models such as pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order kinetic models were used, and also, Weber-Morris intra-particle diffusion model was performed. Among the isotherms used, Freundlich isotherm model was found to fit the experimental results. Besides, the most favorable kinetic model was determined as pseudo-second-order kinetic model.