A continuous process for obtaining a crystalline
monosaccharide, comprising: - a
continuous crystallization of the
monosaccharide in a main crystallizer (10), - wherein in the main crystallizer (10) an
evaporation and / or cooling
crystallization is continuously carried out on a
crystal suspension in order to allow crystals of the
monosaccharide to grow in the
crystal suspension, - separating crystals of the monosaccharide from the
crystal suspension to obtain crystalline monosaccharide; - the continuous formation of a
mass of
crystallization magma for the main crystallizer (10) in a
cascade, - wherein the
cascade comprises at least a first (13) and a last stage (15) connected in series, and each stage comprises at least one pre-crystallizer (13A, 15A), - wherein in the at least one pre-crystallizer (13A) of the first stage (13), solution containing monosaccharide is seeded by monosaccharide seed crystals to obtain a pre-
crystallization magma, and a
mass of crystallization
magma for the downstream stage (14, 15) is formed from the pre-crystallization magma by means of cooling crystallization and / or
evaporation crystallization, and - wherein a solution containing monosaccharide and a
mass of crystallization magma from the preceding stage are fed into the at least one pre-crystallizer (15A, 15B, 15C) of the last stage (15) in order to obtain a pre-crystallization magma, and a mass of crystallization magma for the main crystallizer (10) is formed from the pre-crystallization magma in the at least one pre-crystallizer (15A, 15B, 15C) of the last stage (15) by means of cooling crystallization and / or
evaporation crystallization; - continuously feeding a solution containing the monosaccharide and a mass of crystallization magma from the at least one pre-crystallizer (15A, 15B, 15C) of the last stage (15) of the
cascade into the main crystallizer (10) to provide the crystal suspension, the method being characterized in that the mass of crystallization magma formed in a pre-crystallizer (14A, 14B, 15A, 15B, 15C) of a stage (14, 15) exceeds the mass of crystallization magma formed in a pre-crystallizer (13A, 13B, 14A, 14B, 15A, 15B, 15C) of the preceding stage (13, 14) by a factor of 2 to 12.