The document summarizes the manufacturing process of ethyl lactate. It involves a reactive distillation process using lactic acid and ethanol as reactants. Simulation results showed approximately 96.13% conversion of lactic acid and 95.76% yield of ethyl lactate. The process flowsheet involves a 9-stage reactive distillation column to carry out the reaction, with feeds of lactic acid and ethanol at different stages. The bottom product is distilled to obtain pure ethyl lactate, while recovered ethanol is recycled.

1. Smit Javiya
180470105019
Chemical Department
Summer Internship (3170001)
Manufacturing process of
Ethyl Lactate

2. Index
• Introduction
• Properties & application of Ethyl Lactate
• Present scenario & Market overview
• Health & Safety of Ethyl Lactate
• Environmental impact of Ethyl Lactate
• Reactant Properties
• Theory of manufacturing
• Process Flowsheet
• Result
• Challenges in employing Ethyl Lactate
• Summary

3. Introduction
• Ethyl lactate is widely used as a solvent for several industries and usually produced by
esterification of lactic acid with ethanol. Ethyl lactate (CH3CHOHCOOCH2CH3) is
an acid ester that can be considered as a green chemical due to its non-toxic,
biodegradable and excellent solvent properties. Ethyl lactate is an environmentally
benign solvent with effectiveness comparable to petroleum-based solvents.
• Ethyl lactate is an important monobasic ester, also known as lactic acid ethyl ester
(IUPAC name: Ethyl (S)2-hydroxypropanoate), with molecular formula C5 H10 O3. It
is a clear to slightly yellow liquid, and it is found naturally in small quantities in a
wide variety of foods, including wine, chicken, and some fruits.
• Ethyl lactate can be either in the levo (S)or dextro (R) forms, and it is industrially
produced as a racemic mixture through a reversible reaction between ethanol and
lactic acid, wherein water is a by-product. Lactic acid itself is a very important
chemical with applications in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
It is also used as a monomer for the manufacture of biodegradable polymers, as
substitutes for traditional petrochemical polymers. Lactic acid has been produced
through both chemical synthesis or fermentation routes.

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• In this process, reactive distillation process for small-scale synthesis of ethyl lactate
from esterification of fermentation-derived magnesium lactate with ethanol was
designed and simulated using DWSIM simulator.
• Reactive distillation is a unit operation that combines chemical reaction and
separation in the same vessel. Specification and optimum conditions of reactive
distillation and fractional distillation units in the proposed process scheme were
obtained. Under the process scheme and operating conditions proposed in this
work, approximately 96.13% of lactic acid was converted and 95.76% yield of
ethyl lactate was achieved.

5. Ethyl lactate properties and applications
• Ethyl lactate can be used as a food additive, in perfumery, as flavour chemicals and
solvent, which can dissolve acetic acid cellulose and many resins. Ethyl lactate can
also be applied in the pharmaceutical industry as a dissolving/dispersing excipient
for various biologically active compounds without destroying the pharmacological
activity of the active ingredient. It is a very effective agent for solubilising
biologically active compounds that are difficult to solubilise in usual excipients. Its
main application is as a solvent, being particularly attractive for the coatings
industry as a result of its high solvency power, high boiling point, low vapour
pressure and low surface tension.
• Almost all manufacturing and processing industries depend on the use of solvents.
Some industry experts suggest that ethyl lactate could replace the traditional
solvents in more than 80% of their applications. However, this is probably highly
inflated, since ethyl lactate is a high boiling polar protic and there are applications
where non-polar, aprotic and/or lower boiling point solvents are required.

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Solvent demand by market segment
• Moreover, the crude oil prices have risen sharply, making ethyl lactate as a green
solvent more commercially attractive, and due to the rising environmental
consciousness, some consumers are willing to pay more for products that are less
detrimental to the environment.
• Ethyl lactate is a desirable coating for
wood, polystyrene and metals and also
acts as a very effective paint stripper
and graffiti remover. It can also be used
in magnetic tape coatings replacing the
hazardous air pollutants (MEK, MIBK
and toluene). Ethyl lactate is replacing
solvents, such as N-methyl pyrrolidone
(NMP), toluene, acetone and xylene,
which has resulted in a safer workplace.

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• Other applications of ethyl lactate are as a cleaning agent for the polyurethane
industry and for metal surfaces, efficiently removing greases, oils, adhesives and
solid fuels. Recently, it also been shown to be effective on the removal of copper
from contaminated soils. Ethyl lactate can also be applied in the pharmaceutical
industry as a dissolving/dispersing excipient for various biologically active
compounds without destroying the pharmacological activity of the active
ingredient.
• Ethyl lactate is a very effective agent for solubilising biologically active compounds
that are difficult to solubilise in usual excipients. It can also be used as a more
environmentally friendly alternative route to produce 1,2-propanediol, which is
normally produced by the hydration of propylene oxide derived from
petrochemical resources.

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• A significant amount of solvents are used in pharmaceutical manufacturing
processes; indeed, it was estimated that around 80% of the total mass of chemicals
involved in the pharmaceutical manufacture comprises solvents. The redesign of
synthetic processes in order to reduce the amount of solvent applied and the use of
nontoxic and non-hazardous solvents that are easy to recover and re-use are of
major importance.
• From this perspective, ethyl lactate is currently being advertised as an
environmentally attractive solvent for chemical reactions. It was also used as a
green solvent to extract phytosterols from wet corn fiber, which provides an oil
product with free phytosterols and free fatty acids, and to extract carotenoid, an
effective solvent for both the cis and trans lycopene isomers from dried tomato
powder.

9. Present scenario & Market overview
Ethyl Lactate Market Overview
• Ethyl Lactate Market is forecast to reach $2.5 billion by 2026, after growing at
a CAGR of 8.1% during 2021-2026. Globally, the rising demand for ethyl lactate
owing to its non-carcinogenic and non-toxic properties in the food and beverage
and personal care and cosmetic industry will drive the market growth in the
forecast period. Ethyl lactate is an eco-friendly solvent with possible uses in
supercritical fluid technology such as high-pressure chemical reactions, carbon
dioxide co-solvent, anti-solvent precipitation processes, and supercritical
extraction processes. Owing to its biodegradable qualities, ethyl lactate is an
environmentally safe product. Their use and popularity can only be increased if
they are substituted by competitively priced synthetic organic solvents such
as methylene chloride and chloroform. Furthermore, the gradual economic
recovery and downstream applications of ethyl lactate are broadening the demand
for the ethyl lactate industry across various industry verticals.

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Key Takeaways
• Asia Pacific region dominated the ethyl lactate market owing to the
biodegradable qualities, making it common commodity in several
different manufacturing scenarios.
• Increased tendency towards green solvents across different application
segments is expected to fuel demand growth in ethyl lactate shortly. Ethyl
lactate is commonly used as a solvent in various end-use industries.
• Ethyl Lactate is a good precision cleaning solvent that dries without
leaving any film or residue. It is widely used as a photo-resistant carrier
solvent and as an ingredient in edge bead removal mixtures.

11. Health and safety of Ethyl Lactate
• As phytonutrients are potential additives in foods and drugs any chemical or
solvent that comes into direct contact with them must be safe for human
consumption. No complete removal can be guaranteed and hence, trace
amounts of chemicals will be left in the food. Chronic health effects after
prolonged consumption might be inevitable. Instead of working towards
more effective separation process, the use of toxic chemicals must be
avoided.
• Ethyl lactate is a food grade solvent, which is non-toxic and non-
carcinogenic. In 2005, the USFDA approved the use of ethyl lactate in food
and pharmaceutical products and it is GRAS solvent. It is found naturally in
wine, beer, chicken and some fruits.
• Most of the organic solvents derived from petrochemical industry are toxic,
highly volatile and flammable creating a hazardous working environment.
Prolonged and high concentration exposures can cause adverse health effects.

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• Alternatively, ethyl lactate has high flash point and low volatility.
Occupational exposure is minimal and the solvent itself is safer and greener
than other common solvents such as methanol, acetonitrile, toluene and
benzene. In addition, studies show that ethyl lactate has a very low human
and animal toxicity at wide range of concentration exposures.
• Water is a universal green solvent, which is polar in nature, Meanwhile,
ethanol is generally known as another green and safe solvent. Both water and
ethanol are categorised as the preferred solvents in the pfizer solvent guide.
However, ethanol and other organic solvents are highly volatile and
flammable with low flash point and high vapour pressure.
• The long term use and exposure of these chemicals in confined areas with
inadequate ventilation pose certain degree of health and safety concern
towards users.

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• Methanol, being a polar solvent one carbon less than ethanol, is toxic. Due
to the toxicity of methanol, the use of this solvent should be avoided
altogether when safer alcohols such as ethanol and isopropanol present as
alternatives.
• As compared to ethanol, methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate and hexane, ethyl
lactate is a suitable alternative solvent because it has low toxicity, volatility
and flammability, thus creating a safer working environment to extract
phytonutrients from food wastes industrially.

14. Environmental impacts of Ethyl Lactate
• Ethyl lactate is an ester originating from the corn and soybean industry. It is
produced from ethanol and lactic acid in the presence of acid as the
catalyst. Ethanol can be produced through fermentation from sugar, starch
or cellulose. The use of cellulosic biomass is encouraging because it does not
promote food competition.
• Furthermore, the reduction of net greenhouse emission is more significant
than the use of corn or sugarcane. Several ethanol plants were built in
Europe using cellulose as the feedstock for the production. Lactic acid could
be obtained from glucose, maltose, sucrose and lactose. In Germany and
Austria, pilot bio refineries were built to investigate the use of grass juice to
produce lactic acid.

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• Solvent constitutes a huge part of the waste by-
products from chemical industry creating various
environmental problems. Ethyl lactate does not persist
in the environment after use. It readily biodegrades
into harmless compounds such as water and carbon
dioxide. The production of ethyl lactate is sustainable
Through fermentation, plant biomass is used to
generate ethanol and lactic acid for ethyl lactate
production. After use, ethyl lactate will breakdown
into water and carbon dioxide and these compounds
are the building blocks for plant biomass through
photosynthesis. In turn, the plant biomass will be used
for the production of ethyl lactate again and again.
• Ethyl lactate is a non-hazardous air pollutant and non-ozone depleting compound. It is
approved by US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as a Significant New
Alternatives Policy Program (SNAP) solvent.

16. Reactant properties
• For the production of Ethyl lactate mostly Lactic acid & Ethanol are
used as reactants.
1. Lactic Acid :
• Lactic acid is an organic acid. It has a molecular formula
CH3CH(OH)COOH. It is white in the solid state and it
is miscible with water. When in the dissolved state, it forms a
colorless solution. Production includes both artificial synthesis as well
as natural sources. Lactic acid is an alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA) due to
the presence of a hydroxyl group adjacent to the carboxyl group. It is
used as a synthetic intermediate in many organic synthesis industries
and in various biochemical industries. The conjugate base of lactic acid
is called lactate.

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2. Ethanol :
• Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or
simply alcohol) is an organic chemical compound. It is a
simple alcohol with the chemical formula C2H6O. Its formula can be also
written as CH3−CH2−OH or C2H5OH (an ethyl group linked to
a hydroxyl group). Ethanol is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid with
a slight characteristic odour. It is a psychoactive substance, recreational
drug, and the active ingredient in alcoholic drink.
• Ethanol is naturally produced by the fermentation of sugars by yeasts or
via petrochemical processes such as ethylene hydration. It has medical
applications as an antiseptic and disinfectant. It is used as
a chemical solvent and in the synthesis of organic compounds. Ethanol is
a fuel source.

18. Theory of manufacturing
• The use of lactic acid and ethanol as reactants for the ethyl lactate synthesis
has the advantage of both being produced from renewable resources.
• Conventional production of ethyl lactate is via esterification of lactic acid
with ethanol. The reaction proceeds well in an acid environment so either
homogeneous or heterogeneous acid catalysts are normally used to accelerate
the reaction. This process is, however, expensive due to the costly separation
and purification processes, which has been estimated to be about a half of the
total cost for production of highly purified lactic acid. Synthesis of ethyl
lactate directly from lactate salts obtained from lactic acid fermentation
might help reducing the production cost of this process.
Ethanol + Lactic Acid → Ethyl Lactate + Water

19. Continue…..
• Reactive distillation is a unit operation that combines chemical reaction and
separation in the same vessel. Due to its multifunctional nature, the unit is
considered as a high potential process for carrying out reversible reactions
such as esterification, transesterification, and etherification as it can promote
the reaction conversion in these equilibrium-limited reactions.
• In addition, reactive distillation has its merit in reducing both capital and
operational cost of the process. It has shown great economical and
environmental benefices in many existing applications, for examples,
production of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and methyl acetate.

20. Process flowsheet
Process Flowsheet of Ethyl Lactate Production

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• A 9-stage Reactive Distillation column is used to carry out the reaction. Feeds
of Lactic acid and Ethanol are given at the 2nd and the 6thstages respectively.
The bottom product of the RD column is then distilled to obtain pure Ethyl
Lactate. The recovered Ethanol is then recycled back in to the feed stream. In
this process Raoult’s Law is used as a property package.
• Main reaction of the process:
Ethanol + Lactic Acid → Ethyl Lactate + Water
• We have carried out the process on many sample based on that we obtain
different composition of Ethyl lactate. So on that we easily conclude what
proportion of reactant is best and economical for the production of Ethyl
lactate.
• The detailed process is mentioned in the result.

22. Result
• The final product sample S-05 approximately has a mole fraction of 0.9 Ethyl
Lactate with other components consisting mostly of water. So this condition is
most favourable & having highest conversion.

23. Challenges in employing Ethyl Lactate
• Though ethyl lactate has high potential to substitute many of the common
organic solvents used currently, there exists a number of challenges in the
route to large-scale adoption of this solvent for extraction. As ethyl lactate
has high flash point, high boiling point and low vapour pressure, solvent
removal via conventional heating is both time- and energy-intensive. This
would complicate the process when the extracted compounds (phenolics and
carotenoids) are heat-sensitive and tends to degrade upon heating.
• Therefore, milder conditions should be utilised during ethyl lactate recovery
or removal. The application of freeze-drying, membrane-exclusion, adsorption
chromatography, spray-drying and vacuum-drying can be considered as
alternatives. The study of effective methods to remove ethyl lactate has yet to
be investigated.

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• Ethyl lactate is capable of extracting both polar and non-polar compounds.
This is an advantage to recover both compounds simultaneously. However,
the selectivity of this solvent will come into question when multiple
compounds with diverse polarities are present in the plant source. In fruit and
vegetable wastes, pesticide, glycoalkaloids, solanine, chaconine steroidal
alkaloids are commonly found in the peels and glycoalkaloids are toxic at high
concentration.
• Apple seeds also contain amygdalin, which is toxic. These compounds should
be isolated from the extract as co-extraction of these compounds is
unwanted. Further purification might be required before use or the process
parameters such as temperature, time, type and proportion of co-solvent
could be adjusted to fine tune the desired selectivity.

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• The viscosity of ethyl lactate is higher than conventional organic solvents. The
mass transfer coefficients become lower and the penetration of this solvent
into the plant matrix will be limited to a certain extent when highly viscous
solvent is employed. Mild heating could be applied when this phenomenon is
dominant during extraction. This is because viscosity is inversely
proportional to the temperature. In addition, mild heating would help to
enhance the kinetics of mass transfer or diffusion, and to disrupt the cell
tissues for solvent infiltration. However, care should be taken as heating
might promote degradation of the targeted nutraceutical compounds.
• Ethyl lactate is an ester which is unstable in nature. In the presence of water,
ethyl lactate will disintegrate easily into lactic acid. Therefore, the application
of an aqueous system should be avoided if ethyl lactate is the solvent of
choice.

26. Continue…..
• Currently, the price of ethyl lactate is higher than the other organic solvents.
The price of ethyl lactate will reduce gradually due to the continual
technological improvements in ethanol, lactic acid and ethyl lactate production.
Several advancements have been introduced to drive the equilibrium reaction
towards the generation of ethyl lactate. The separation and purification of lactic
acid from fermentation broth is energy intensive, which accounts for about 50%
of the total production cost.
• The use of membrane for lactic acid purification has been introduced to reduce
the production cost. Heterogeneous acid catalysts have also been introduced for
ease of separation, longer life time, higher purity products and avoidance of
corrosive waste. Solvent extraction, reduced pressure flash separation, fractional
distillation and molecular sieves have also been proposed to improve ethyl
lactate production in terms of its cost and efficiency. Researchers also integrated
both separation and reaction in a single unit to shift the equilibrium reaction
towards ethyl lactate production.

27. Summary
• In summary, the performance of ethyl lactate as a safe, green, efficient and
potentially cheap solvent to extract natural phytonutrients has been
demonstrated through the literature to be promising. Nonetheless, more
studies are required to strengthen its application as a green solvent for
phytonutrients extraction from fruit and vegetable wastes.
• In line with the current challenges associated with the use of this solvent,
further investigations on the selectivity and recovery of ethyl lactate as an
extraction solvent as well as reduction of production costs are suggested.
With continuous research on this promising green solvent, understanding
of its full extraction capability and applicability will be further improved.

28. Thank You