or sulfuric acid solvents suitable for use in the inventive process include polar solvents preferably water miscible preferable solvents include aliphatic alkanols such as methanol ethanol propanol isopropanol or the like preferably methanol or ethanol more preferably ethanol in general reaction temperatures for the inventive process are directly related to reaction rate that is increased reaction temperature leads to increased reaction rate however excessively high reaction temperatures are to be avoided suitable reaction temperatures may be about 0 u00b0 c to 50 u00b0 c preferably about 5 u00b0 c to 35 u00b0 c more preferably about 10 u00b0 to 30 u00b0 c in actual practice waste streams from a 2 step resolution of racemic 2 amino 2 3 dimethylbutyronitrile combined or individually are acidified to a ph of about 3 to form crystalline alkali metal hydrogen d tartrate and said hydrogen d tartrate is reacted with at least one molar equivalent of acid preferably hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid optionally in the presence of a solvent preferably an aliphatic alkanol more preferably methanol or ethanol to give the desired essentially enantiomerically pure d tartartic acid advantageously the crystalline alkali metal hydrogen d tartrate may be isolated using conventional means such as filtration or alternatively may be carried on in the inventive process as is or as a concentrated slurry similarly the recovered d tartaric acid may be isolated using conventional techniques or recycled as is or as a concentrated slurry in order to facilitate a further understanding of the invention the following examples are presented primarily for the purpose of illustrating certain more specific details thereof the invention is not to be.