Low Amine Odor Anion Resin for Beverage Production

Globally in the beverage manufacturing and bottled beverage industry, there is a high demand for demineralized water. Approximately 1000 m³/year of ion exchange resins are needed to meet this demand in Japan alone in these industries.
Purolite worked with a medium sized Japanese beverage company specializing in bottled tea. They were using Purolite A400MB and C100MB resins which are typically used in industrial water demineralization applications. The concentration of amine in the demineralized water being used to manufacture the company’s Japanese Bottled Tea is a concern and needed to be at a low level. Amine can come off the anion resin and can cause an odor that is not acceptable in this and many other beverage applications.  For this company they utilize a professional odor judge to ensure compliance. According to the plant commissioning requirements, the maximum acceptable limit of amine after the demineralization system is < 5ppb. During the plant commissioning, Purolite received a complaint that there was an amine odor measured by the professional odor judge. 

Information on plant condition:

• 2B3T packed bed system

• Pretreatment: filtration and activated carbon

• Feed water: approx. 400uS/cm

• Flow rate for SBA: 18BV/hour

• Regeneration level: SAC 38g-HCl/L-R, SBA 33g-NaOH/L-R

Purolite began troubleshooting. After discussions with its China plant, they developed a special cleaning treatment for A400 strong base anion resin and created a new product. Purolite  A400EP was born and  then tested in Purolite’s Kyoto lab. The results confirmed that the trimethylamine was below 5ppb within an hour rinse after one double regeneration. A400EP was much quicker and more efficient at rinsing down to acceptable amine odor compared to the previous product as well. The new A400EP resin was produced and 60 days later installed in the customer’s vessel.  The odor disappeared within 15 minutes. This resin batch was retested and confirmed to have no amine odor after 4-6 months aging.

With the creation of this new product, Purolite was able to offer this solution as part of its full product line of ion exchange resins. As a solutions company, Purolite provides customized solutions to customer problems quickly and efficiently without sacrificing production quality.

Why Purolite:

• Flexible to meet customer’s requirements

• Top industry experts with strong capabilities in IER manufacturing technology

• Provide custom solutions to customer problems