Method for purifying amino acid surfactants

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for producing a purified amino acid surfactant from an impure crude amino acid surfactant, comprising the steps of: (i) providing a crude amino acid surfactant; (ii) subjecting the crude amino acid surfactant to an ultrafiltration step; (iii) collecting the purified amino acid surfactant so produced, The ultrafiltration stage includes a filter membrane having a molecular weight cutoff of 1000 g / mol to 100,000 g / mol, preferably 4000 g / mol to 50,000 g / mol, and more preferably 5000 g / mol to 30,000 g / mol. This method can produce purified amino acid surfactants with very low levels of impurities, particularly inorganic salts, residual amino acids, and polar organic solvents. Furthermore, this method achieves high filtration rates with the permeate at relatively low polar organic solvent contents.

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