D-psicose Production via Alkaline Isomerization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for producing isomerized sugar syrups, such as those involving enzymatic processes, face challenges like inefficient production rates, significant coloring issues, and difficulties in purification, which hinder their industrial application. Additionally, these processes require multiple steps and enzymes, leading to safety concerns and high production costs.
Innovation Solution
A process using strongly basic ion exchange resins, alkalis, and calcium salts to transform hexose sugars, allowing for continuous reactions and reducing the need for enzymatic steps, thereby improving yield and safety while minimizing browning and purification requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If enzymatic processes are used to produce isomerized sugar syrups, then production specificity and safety are improved, but production efficiency decreases and production cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces enzymatic biological systems with chemical isomerization systems using strong base catalysts (NaOH, KOH) or metal catalysts. This substitution eliminates the need for enzyme preparation, bacterial culture, and enzyme stability control, thereby improving production efficiency while maintaining product safety through controlled chemical reactions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the reaction conditions from mild enzymatic conditions to strong alkaline conditions (pH 12-14) or metal-catalyzed conditions. By adjusting parameters such as pH, temperature, and catalyst type, the process achieves higher conversion rates and productivity while producing the same isomerized sugar composition.
2Ease of manufacture
If traditional isomerization methods are used, then production cost is reduced, but coloring and purification difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the harmful coloring byproducts generated during isomerization through filtration and purification steps. By separating the colored impurities from the isomerized sugar syrup, the process maintains cost-effectiveness while producing a clear, high-quality product suitable for food applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent acknowledges that strong base-catalyzed isomerization produces coloring byproducts, but converts this harmful effect into a manageable process feature. By optimizing reaction time and temperature, and implementing controlled purification, the process achieves high productivity while the coloring issue is addressed through standard industrial purification techniques.
3Manufacturing precision
If multiple enzymatic steps are implemented, then product purity is improved, but process complexity and production time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple enzymatic steps into a single chemical isomerization step using strong base or metal catalysts. This merging of operations eliminates the need for separate enzyme addition, incubation, and removal steps for each transformation, thereby simplifying the process while achieving the same overall conversion of glucose to fructose and isomerized sugars.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous isomerization reactions using flowing reactants through catalyst beds or continuous stirring in reaction vessels. This continuous process eliminates the batch-wise nature of enzymatic reactions, allowing for steady-state operation, reduced downtime, and simplified process control while maintaining high product purity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the efficient production of sugar compositions with specific hexose ratios, like psicose and allose, suitable for use as sweeteners, anti-obesity agents, and insulin resistance modifiers, offering improved productivity and safety profiles compared to traditional methods.
Implementation Method 1
treating a starting liquid sugar material which comprises hexose or a mixture thereof in the presence of at least one member selected from the group consisting of a basic ion exchange resin, an alkali and a calcium salt, and thus performing an isomerization reaction which is an equilibrium reaction for transforming the hexose as a starting sugar material into the target hexose
Implementation Method 2
an isomerization reaction between aldose and ketose through enediol has been known, which is called the Lobry de Bruyn and Alberda van Ekenstein transformation
Implementation Method 3
passing a solution through a column packed with ion exchange resins
Data Source
AI summary
ProblemsDevelopment of a process of producing inexpensive and safe hexose and compositions of the same.Means for ResolutionA process of producing a sugar composition comprising a definite amount of an target hexose, comprising treating a starting liquid sugar material comprising a starting sugar material hexose or a mixture comprising hexose in a system in the presence of one or more types selected from the group consisting of basic ion exchange resins, alkalis and calcium salts to initiate an isomerization reaction as an equilibrium reaction to transform the starting sugar material hexose to the target hexose to prepare a sugar mixture comprising a definite amount of the target hexose and having a sugar constitution different from that of the starting sugar material, and hexose compositions containing D-allose and D-psicose and the use of the hexose compositions.