Patent ID: 9556116
Date: 2017-01-31
CPC Classifications: C07C,C11B

Claim:
1. A process for continuous desalting of a krill oil extract stream to provide a desalted lipid rich stream, said process comprising: a) diluting the krill oil extract stream comprising polar lipids, neutral lipids, trimethylamine N-oxide, salts, and astaxanthin to a desalter concentration of about 2 and about 7 wt-% on a dry basis in a polar solvent comprising ethanol and water having an ethanol:water ratio of between of about 95:5 to 99:1 to provide a diluted krill oil stream; b) continuously passing the diluted krill oil stream to a filtration zone having a 0.45 micron filter to provide a filtered desalter feed stream; c) continuously passing the filtered desalter feed stream to a desalting zone having a plurality of desalting stages comprising at least two active desalting stages undergoing a desalting process, and at least one regenerating desalting stage undergoing a regeneration cycle, each active desalting stage and each regenerating desalting stage comprising a cation column containing a cation adsorbent in serial fluid communication with an anion column containing an anion adsorbent to adsorb the salt and the trimethylamine N-oxide, each cation column and each anion column having a top and a bottom, the desalting process comprising: d) cycling the desalting zone by intermittently terminating distributing the filtered desalter feed stream to the active desalting stages and shifting or exchanging the newly regenerated desalting stage for the active desalting stage in the lead position and shifting the active desalting in the terminal position to become the regenerating desalting stage and to provide the process for continuous desalting of the krill oil extract stream; and, e) admixing the first desalted krill oil stream and the second desalted krill oil stream to provide the desalted lipid rich stream being substantially free of salt and trimethylamine N-oxide.