A E Staley Manufacturing Company

Roger S Leiser

Gin C Liaw

Charles E Schollmeier

Large-scale apparatus and process for chromatographic separation of fructose/dextrose sugar solutions employing large diameter beds of a strongly cationic salt of an ion exchange resin. The cationic ion exchange resin is densely and uniformly packed in a separation column by means of a resin loading method which includes washing the resin with a salt selected from the group of calcium, barium, strontium or silver salts of the resin. The shrunken resin is then placed in the column to completely fill the column. After sealing the column, excess salt is washed away to thereby expand the resin inside the confined separation column chamber. The uniformly dense packing of the resin in the separation column chamber eliminates the need for mechanical baffles which were formerly required to insure regular and uniform flow throughout the entire cross sectional area of the separation columns. Large diameter separation columns without baffles are made possible by the column packing method of the invention because undesirable channeling or irregular flow in the densely packed resin bed is virtually eliminated. A liquid feed stream containing fructose and dextrose and a second stream of elution water are fed through a series of separation columns in alternate, cyclic pulses. The liquid streams are further redistributed between the successive columns of the series to further increase the degree of separation of the output stream into a portion rich in fructose, and another output stream rich in dextrose.

Process and equipment for chromatographic separation of

Fructose productivity and isomerase activity in immobilized beds or column operations employing isomerases obtained from Bacillus organisms are significantly improved by isomerizing a high solids feed syrup at pH 7.0-7.5 and 55.degree. C. to 60.degree. C. Without adding cobalt to the feed streams, continuous column operation in excess of 4,000 hours and yielding greater than 3,500 pounds of a 42% fructose syrup for each pound of isomerase can be achieved.

Fructose production

Non-compacting, anhydrous dextrose conversion syrup product in particle form prepared by shearing and cooling a molten dextrose conversion syrup (preferably at 90-92% dry solids) to a temperature less than 200.degree. F., depositing and solidifying the fluid mass upon a supporting member to an anhydrous dextrose product, granulating the solidified product and drying the particles to less than 2% moisture. The anhydrous dextrose particles have unique properties and, if desired, may be used as a sugar or dextrose monohydrate replacement.

Solid anhydrous dextrose

Mother liquors obtained from a dextrose crystallization process may be upgraded for re-cycling to dextrose crystallizers by transferring the mother liquor through a bed of an adsorption agent which preferentially adsorbs either dextrose or oligosaccharides. A dextrose-rich portion of the mother liquor is then recovered from either the dextrose-rich fraction which passes through the bed or has been preferentially adsorbed and eluted from the bed with a solvent.

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Decatur, IL, United States of America

Roger S Leiser