Patent ID: 8431725

Claim:
A method for the recovery of a lactide containing feed stream in the absence of solvent crystallization, said method comprising the steps of: a. Cooling the lactide containing stream to a temperature between 75° C. and 95° C. to form a mixed phase slurry of mother liquor and suspended lactide crystals, b. Cooling said slurry to create a volume with a crystal content of between 15% and 50% by weight of the lactide crystals, wherein the crystals are grown in suspension from a slightly under-cooled melt and are not fixed onto an internal crystallizer surface, the available surface for crystal growth being not less than 5,000 m 2 per m 3 of crystallizer volume, and c. Holding said slurry in a mixing vessel to create a crystal residence time between 15 minutes and 2 hours d. Separating said crystals from the mother liquid.