Removing impurities from sugar solutions

Abstract

Provided is a process for removing impurities from a solution (S1), wherein said solution (S1) comprises one or more sugar dissolved in an aqueous solvent, wherein said solution (S1) has conductivity at 25° C. of 500 μS/cm or higher, and wherein said process comprises (a) contacting said solution (S1) with a cation exchange resin (R1) to produce a solution (S2) in which 80% or more of the cations are all of the same element (E); and (b) then contacting said solution (S2) with a cation exchange resin (R2) in which, prior to said contacting, 90% or more of acid groups are in the salt form with said element (E). Also provided is a process for producing glycols comprising providing an extract solution by the process of claim 1, and then contacting said solution (S3) with hydrogen and a metal catalyst.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.