A Green and Economical Method for Preparing Potassium Glutamate through Electrodialysis Metathesis

Potassium glutamate has a very high value due to its excellent medical effects. An electrodialysis metathesis (EDM) method was developed to prepare high-value potassium glutamate from low-cost sodium glutamate. The effects of initial sodium glutamine and potassium sulfate concentrations and operating voltage on the performance of EDM were studied. The results show that the higher initial sodium glutamate concentration can increase the production capacity, but the energy consumption becomes higher, and the current efficiency reduces. The higher the initial potassium sulfate concentration, the better the performance of EDM. When the operating voltage is 15 V, the lowest energy consumption is 2.59 kWh·kg –1 C 5 H 8 KNO 4 . Under the best experimental conditions, the purity of potassium glutamate can reach 98.92%. The calculated cost for the process of preparing potassium glutamate by EDM is $0.394 kg –1 C 5 H 8 KNO 4 . Compared with the traditional preparation of potassium glutamate, EDM has obvious advantages in process flow, raw material use, product generation, and processing. Therefore, the preparation of potassium glutamate by EDM is a green and economical method.