Natural crystalline colorant and process for production

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12129356-B2
Application number	US-202318364762-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2023
Priority date	Jun 30, 2011
Publication date	Oct 29, 2024
Grant date	Oct 29, 2024

Abstract

A crystalline pigment or colorant composition having high color intensity and/or low sugar content, and methods and processes of preparation. The composition may comprise purified fruit and/or vegetable color juices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a purifier device comprising a polymeric membrane system for purifying a juice of a plant containing pigments to produce a liquid feed, wherein the purifying comprises performing ultrafiltration and diafiltration across the polymeric membrane system;
a conveyor belt with a top surface configured to receive the liquid feed;
an applicator tray at a first end of the conveyor belt that receives the liquid feed and provides the liquid feed to the top surface;
one or more heating trays underneath the conveyor belt that heat the liquid feed to facilitate production of a crystalline product from the liquid feed, wherein hot water at a temperature equal to or less than about 210° F. circulates through the one or more heating trays; and
a mill for milling the crystalline product.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the purifying further comprises at least one of adsorption/desorption chromatography, fermentation, a subcritical fluid extraction process, or a supercritical fluid extraction process.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the top surface of the conveyor belt has a temperature that is lower than the temperature of the hot water.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising air blowers that move water vapor away from the top surface of the conveyer belt.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the conveyor belt is made of plastic.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an air pump and a feed barrel connected to the air pump via a suction hose, wherein the air pump pumps the liquid feed from the feed barrel into a feed balance tank and the air pump is controlled by a level of the liquid feed inside the feed balance tank.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the polymeric membrane system comprises a polyethersulfone (PES) spiral ultrafiltration membrane.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the PES spiral ultrafiltration membrane has a nominal molecular weight cutoff of about 5000 Daltons.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the polymeric membrane system is configured to separate sugar from the pigments.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the liquid feed comprises a lower sugar content compared to the juice of the plant, on a dry weight basis.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the juice is at least partially derived from algae.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the pigments comprise at least one of anthocyanins, carotenoids, betalains, curcumin, carminic acid, carminic acid derivatives, chlorophyll, or chlorophyll derivatives.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the conveyor belt forms part of a refractive window dryer.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein a particle size of the crystalline product after the milling is between about 50 and 425 μm.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the crystalline product has less than 8% moisture by weight.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the crystalline product comprises a water soluble powder.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the crystalline product comprises a powder with glassy, angular crystals.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein crystalline product has a color intensity that is higher than that of the juice of the plant.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the crystalline product comprises at least a portion of the pigments.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein the crystalline product comprises a crystalline pigment or colorant.

Assignees

• Gallo Winery E & J
• E &J Gallo Winery

Inventors

• Rossi Joseph
• Kattamuri Sundeep

Classifications

• B01D2325/20

  Specific permeability or cut-off range · CPC title

• B01D2315/16

  Diafiltration · CPC title

• B01D71/68

  Polysulfones; Polyethersulfones · CPC title

• B01D63/10

  Spiral-wound membrane modules · CPC title

• B01D61/58

  Multistep processes · CPC title