Some Aspects of the Continuous Production of Low‐acetylated Potato Starch

Abstract

Experiments are carried out on the acetylation of potato starch by vinylacetate in suspension in various types of continuous flow reactors. The reactors used were a cascade of four mixing vessels, each of equal size, a cascade of 4 mixers of increasing size, and a tubular reactor. The percentage of the vinylacetate which is bound to the starch under optimum conditions varies with the reactor type used. The product quality, as measured by the variation in viscosity of a starch acetate solution with time, is found to be lower for the starch acetates produced in the cascade reactors than for batchwise produced material of the same DS. This is shown to be due to the variation in DS of the individual starch granules. Starch acetates produced in the tubular reactor have a quality comparable to the acetates produced batch‐wise. An approximate design for a commercial acetylation plant is presented.