Procedure for carrying out the conversion from glucose to fructose

 

(Crueger and Crueger, 1989. Biotechnology: A Textbook of Industrial Microbiology. Science Tech Publishers, Madison, Wisconsin.)

 

 The system shown above, with multiple bioreactors connected in series, produces 100 tons of fructose per day with two parallel rows, each with three 2.2 m3 columns.

 

The starting material is glucose syrup, with a dry weight of 40-45% and 93-96% glucose. In order to prevent loss of enzyme activity during isomerization, the solution must first be purified by filtration, carbon treatment and ion exchange. Magnesium is then added, as an activator, and the reaction is run at pH 8.5 and a temperature of 60-65oC for 0.8 – 4 hours.

 

Compared to the batch process, at the same conversion temperature, the continuous system gives a considerably better product in 20% of the reactor time and with only 4% of the reactor volume.

 

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