Impact of Inorganic\nImpurities on Lactose Growth Kinetics\nDetermined by Large-Scale Interferometric Data Sets

Lactose crystallization\nfrom whey occurs in the presence\nof varying\ncompositions of inorganic salts impurities. These impact lactose solubility,\nmutarotation, and crystal growth. Possibilities of predicting crystal\ngrowth rates based on given impurity compositions yield the chance\nto optimize the industrial lactose crystallization processes. To this\nday, model-based optimization efforts of lactose crystallization often\nlack kinetic parameters to accurately describe crystal growth in varying\nnatural whey solutions. This study presents an extensive experimental\ndata set of lactose crystal growth kinetics impacted by different\nimpurities and process conditions, measured in a Jamin-interferometer\nsetup. A parameter estimation was conducted to derive growth rate\nparameters for a variety of individual impurity concentrations as\na function of α-lactose supersaturation and temperature. The\nobtained growth rates at different supersaturation levels, temperatures,\nand impurity profiles emphasize the complex interaction of whey salts\nand lactose. The kinetics presented in this study provide a comprehensive\nbase for model-based process optimization.