Abstract
The kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid were studied using a continuousβflow tubular reactor. The reaction was carried out in the temperature range of 200β260Β°C and at a pressure of 20 MPa. Deamination was the primary reaction, indicated by the presence of significant amount of ammonia, fumaric acid, or maleic acid in the products. Other reaction products were pyruvic acid, malic acid, and traces of succinic and lactic acid. Traces of alanine were also detected, showing the possibility of decomposing highβmolecular weight amino acids to obtain simple amino acids such as glycine or alanine. Results on the effect of reaction parameters demonstrated that decomposition of aspartic acid is highly temperature dependent under hydrothermal conditions. For a slight temperature difference of 60Β°C (from 200 to 260Β°C), the firstβorder reaction rate constants of 0.003 significantly increased to 0.231 s^β1^. The activation energy was 144 kJ/mol, as calculated by the Arrhenius equation. No significant effect was exhibited by other reaction parameters such as pH and pressure. The results are useful in controlling the hydrolysis of proteinaceous materials toward high yield of aspartic acid under hydrothermal conditions. Β© 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 39: 175β180, 2007