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Title: An economic and energy evaluation of the replacement of conventional technology with continuous chromatography in the production of high-fructose sugar

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6111309

As a major portion of a program to assess the energy and economic advantages of using the concept of continuous chromatography as a replacement technology for the separation portion of a number of technologies, a representative the burgeoning biotechnology area was sought, where there is significant developmental activity, and one which represents a sufficiently large annual production to have a significant energy impact on a national scale. The production of high fructose sugars was selected as the candidate system which met these criteria. A trend in the sugar industry is the replacement of sucrose with fructose from corn. Fructose is considerably sweeter than sucrose per unit weight and thus lower in calories for equivalent sweetness. The process which begins with corn starch leads high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a mixture of fructose, glucose and higher-molecular-weight materials. HFCS is produced in a sequence of five principal operations. The three of direct interest here are breakdown of the hydrolyzate polymer to individual glucose molecules using glucoamylase enzyme (saccharification), conversion of the glucose to a mixture of glucose and fructose, containing /approximately/42% fructose, using immobilized glucose isomerase enzyme (isomerization); and separation unit. The primary function of the separation step is to concentrate the product to a 55% fructose, which accounts for about half the current output. Further there is a growing demand for 99+% fructose, from which crystalline material is made. This study focuses on the replacement of the separation unit, currently based on the SAREX process, with the continuous annular chromatograph (CAC), a recently-developed concept in multicomponent separations. 37 refs., 15 figs., 11 tabs.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
6111309
Report Number(s):
DOE/OR/21400-T352; ON: DE89010393
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English