Process for production of aqueous refined sugar solution

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for producing an aqueous refined sugar solution, in which a biomass residues that are formed during a step of producing a sugar from a cellulose-containing biomass is removed in a step of producing an aqueous sugar solution, thereby preventing the clogging of a microfiltration membrane and/or an ultrafiltration membrane and ensuring long-term, stable production of an aqueous refined sugar solution. Specifically disclosed is a process for producing an aqueous refined sugar solution using a cellulose-containing biomass as a raw material, which comprises the steps of: (1) decomposing cellulose-containing biomass to produce an aqueous sugar solution; (2) subjecting the aqueous sugar solution resulting from step (1) to aggregation treatment with an aggregation agent to produce an aqueous sugar solution having an average particle diameter of 2 μm or more as determined by particle size distribution measurement; and (3) filtering the aqueous sugar solution resulting from step (2) through a microfiltration membrane and/or an ultrafiltration membrane and subsequently recovering an aqueous sugar solution from the downstream side.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.