Patent ID: 7311837

Claim:
A process for the continuous recovery of free tartaric acid from raw materials containing at least 5.0 wt % potassium hydrogentartrate in dry matter comprising mixing the raw materials with water and dissolving potassium hydrogentartrate to form a suspension of potassium hydrogentartrate, decanting the suspension to obtain a clarified liquid, subjecting the clarified liquid to a microfiltration to form a microfiltration filtrate, vacuum cooling the microfiltration filtrate to crystallization temperature to form potassium hydrogentartrate crystals, centrifuging the potassium hydrogentartrate crystals, dissolving the potassium hydrogentartrate crystals in water, removing the potassium from the aqueous potassium hydrogentartrate solution by ion exchange, and forming tartaric acid crystals by evaporating the tartaric acid solution.