Separation method
AssigneeDanisco Sweeteners Oy
InventorsHeikki Heikkilä, Katja Häkkä, Juho Jumppanen, Pia Saari, Nina Nurmi, Vili Ravanko
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Abstract
The invention relates to a process of recovering galactose from a solution derived from plant-based biomass. In the process of the invention, the starting solution is subjected to one or more chromatographic fractionation steps, which may carried out with a strongly basic anion exchange resin and optionally with a strongly acid cation exchange resin, in any desired sequence, followed by recovering at least one fraction enriched in galactose. The galactose fraction thus obtained is further purified by crystallization to obtain crystalline galactose. The invention also relates to non-animal derived crystalline D-galactose.
Claims29
A process of recovering galactose from a plant-based hemicellulose hydrolyzate solution containing a galactose content of at least 5% by weight, said process comprising
- (a) subjecting said solution to chromatographic fractionations, said chromatographic fractionations comprising one or more fractionations using a strongly basic anion exchange resin, wherein the anion is selected from SO42−, SO32−, HSO3−, CH3COO−, and one or more fractionations using a cation exchange resin, wherein the cation exchange resin is selected from strong or weak cation exchange resin;
- (b) recovering at least one fraction enriched in galactose, having a galactose content of 38 to 95% on RDS;
- (c) subjecting said at least one fraction enriched in galactose to crystallization;
- and
- (d) recovering a plant-based crystalline galactose product having a purity of more than 90% on DS.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.