Sugar hydrolysis and colour formation in processing

The stability of the sucrose molecule throughout processing is of the utmost importance, because in principle any sugar loss will increase the production costs per tonne of the obtained white sugar. Colour in processing is an important technological parameter too, since only an adequate colour control in processing allows the cost-effective production of white sugar crystals of the required quality. For process control of both sugar hydrolysis and colour formation it is necessary to understand the effect of pH value, temperature and retention time on these phenomena. This paper will describe the possible causes of sugar hydrolysis and colour, as well as how to control pH values and temperature in processing in order to limit the technological impact of both reactions in which invert sugar plays a central role.

Pretreatment of hardwood chips via autohydrolysis supported by acetic and formic acid

A mixture of US southern hardwood chips was treated with aqueous acetic and formic acid (FA) solutions in a modified Dionex ASE100 extractor. The amount and selectivity of hemicelluloses dissolution increase at higher acetic acid (AA) and FA concentrations, but cellulose remains intact in the residual wood. Even at the highest AA concentration of 100 g l-1, the dissolved hemicellulose fragments are still oligomeric except for arabinose. The formation of lignin-like condensation products (LCPs) and decomposition of dissolved mannose, arabinose, and galactose were observed at the highest AA concentration. Sugar hydrolysis is more pronounced with the addition of FA at increasing temperature. The concentration of xylose in the FA extract is approximately the same as that of xylo-oligomers at 160°C. Formation of LCPs is only observed at 170°C during 10 g l-1 FA treatment. The concentrations of dissolved wood components increase linearly with increased recycling of the FA extract.