The purity and color of glucose is critical for food, pharmaceutical and chemical products. Natural colorants and impurities must be removed from the raw material to produce high quality glucose.
Activated carbon, with its strong adsorptive properties, is the key to decolorization, and it effectively removes impurities without altering the inherent properties of glucose.
This article focuses on the role of activated carbon in glucose production and offers suggestions on how to select products to improve quality.
Why decolorize glucose?
Glucose mainly comes from corn, cassava and other starch materials such as enzymatic hydrolysis or acid hydrolysis. Regardless of the process route, the hydrolyzed liquid contains a certain amount of color impurities, mainly including flavonoids, pectin, protein and other macromolecules.
The purity requirements of glucose in different fields are also different, in order to obtain high purity glucose products, the decolorization process is indispensable. For example, medical glucose requires very high purity, while industrial glucose requires relatively low purity.
Glucose decolorization process
Traditional glucose decolorization methods include chemical oxidation method, ion exchange method, etc., but there are problems such as low efficiency, high cost and easy to produce secondary pollution.
Activated carbon adsorption decolorization is widely used in glucose production because of its wide pH range, thorough decolorization and simple equipment. The basic principle is to make use of the highly developed pore structure and huge specific surface area of activated carbon material to firmly bind the pigment molecules through physical adsorption, so as to realize the effective separation from glucose molecules.
Application of activated carbon in glucose decolorization
There are a large number of micropores and mesopores on the surface of activated carbon, and the size of these pores is similar to the size of pigment molecules. When the glucose solution is in contact with activated carbon, the pigment molecules will be adsorbed into the pores of activated carbon, so as to achieve the purpose of decolorization.
There are two main ways to use activated carbon in glucose decolorization process.
- Fixed bed: granular activated carbon is loaded in the fixed bed layer, glucose solution passes through the carbon bed from top to bottom, pigment impurities are adsorbed and retained, and the clarified liquid is obtained. This method is simple to operate, the decolorization effect is stable, but there are problems such as large resistance and slow penetration.
- feeding method: powdered activated carbon is directly added into glucose solution, stirring adsorption for a certain period of time, the activated carbon is removed by filtration, and the decolorized product is obtained. This method has fast adsorption rate and high mass transfer efficiency, which is more suitable for large-scale industrial production.
Features of activated carbon in glucose decolorization:
- high decolorization efficiency: it has strong adsorption ability to many kinds of pigments, can effectively remove the pigments in glucose and improve the purity of the product.
- High selectivity: it can be selectively adsorbed according to the size and nature of pigment molecules, which will not affect the quality and efficacy of glucose. 3. simple operation: the operation of decolorization is simple and easy.
- Simple operation: The operation of decolorization is simple and easy to control, which is suitable for large-scale industrialized production.
- Low cost: the price is relatively low, and can be regenerated and utilized, which reduces the production cost.
Selection of activated carbon
Selection of the right activated carbon is essential to ensure glucose decolorization. The use of activated carbon with high adsorption capacity and suitable particle size is usually recommended to ensure an efficient and economical decolorization process
Activated carbon products commonly used for glucose decolorization:
- wood powder activated carbon: with large specific surface area and rich pore structure, fast adsorption speed, suitable for removing a small amount of pigment in glucose, to meet the general industrial use.
- coal granular activated carbon: with good adsorption performance and abrasion resistance, suitable for continuous decolorization process, suitable for large-scale glucose production enterprises.
| Specifications | Coal granular activated carbon | Wood powder activated carbon |
| Mesh Size: | 12*40 mesh | 200 / 325 mesh |
| Iodine (mg/g) | 950-1050 | 800-1000 |
| Moisture (%) Maximum | 3 | 10 |
| Ash≤(%) | 5(max) | 5（max） |
| Molasses Number ≥ | 200 | 200 |
The activated carbon products offered by Qizhong are specially designed for glucose decolorization and have the following features:
- High adsorption capacity.
- High purity
- High adaptability
Conclusion
The selection of suitable activated carbon is crucial to ensure the quality and market competitiveness of glucose products.
Our company offers a wide range of highly efficient activated carbon products for all types of decolorization needs. If you need further advice or would like to know more about how to optimize your glucose decolorization process, please do not hesitate to contact us.
