Process for Forming Chromium Propionate as an Agricultural Feed Additive

摘要

Chromium propionate, as an animal feed supplement, is created employing chromium carbonate and propionic acid as starting materials. A quantity of chromium carbonate is dissolved into water and propionic acid is stirred in to this, followed by calcium oxide. The propionic acid reacts with the chromium carbonate to form chromium propionate. The calcium oxide minimizes the hygroscopic nature of the finished product, to prevent caking and lumping. The chromium propionate appears as a precipitate, which is dried and can be centrifuged to drive out excess propionic acid. The dried precipitate is delumped and ground to a desired particle size. The end product has a minimum of 10% active bio-available chromium(III) content.

主权项

1. Process for forming chromium propionate in suitable form for use as an agricultural feed additive containing a minimum of 10% available chromium(III), the process comprising:
a) into a vessel adding a quantity of chromium carbonate, and introducing a sufficient quantity of water to form an aqueous paste with the chromium carbonate; b) adding to said aqueous paste in said vessel a quantity of propionic acid while stirring the paste and added propionic acid; c) adding to said paste a quantity of one of calcium oxide and magnesium oxide sufficient to raise the pH of said paste; d) allowing the chromium carbonate, propionic acid, and said one of calcium oxide and magnesium oxide to react to completion resulting in a precipitate of chromium propionate and reaction byproducts of said one of calcium oxide and magnesium oxide; e) placing the precipitate into a drying device and removing residual water remaining therein after step d) to dry the precipitate, such that the reaction byproduct of the one of the calcium oxide and magnesium oxide includes a carbonate salt that serves as an anti-caking agent; and f) comminuting the precipitate to a desired particle size.