ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Design and economics of industrial production of fructooligosaccharides

Katarína Vaňková, Zdenka Onderková, Monika Antošová, and Milan Polakovič

Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, SK-812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia

E-mail: milan.polakovic@stuba.sk

Received: 9 October 2007  Revised: 27 November 2007  Accepted: 28 November 2007

Abstract: A process for industrial production of fructooligosaccharides (FOS’s) based on the conversion of sucrose by immobilized fructosyltransferase (FTase) from the cells of Aureobasidium pullulans CCY 27-1-94 was developed. Particular process operations and conditions were designed employing results of laboratory and semi-pilot scale experiments. The process flowsheet comprised three sections: FTase production, which included fermentation, isolation and purification of the enzyme, FTase immobilization and FOS’s production where a product with a high content of FOS’s was prepared by the removal of glucose, fructose and unreacted sucrose from the reaction mixture using simulated moving-bed chromatography. Two alternative process flowsheets were proposed for the annual production of 10 000 t of FOS’s: one for a powdery product and the second one for syrup. The economic analysis provided the costs for the production of immobilized FTase and FOS’s using two different price estimates for sucrose.

Keywords: fructooligosaccharides - fructosyltransferase - downstream processing - process design - economic analysis

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-008-0034-y

Chemical Papers 62 (4) 375–381 (2008)