Non-sugar Removal in the Molasses and Raw Juice Chromatographic Separation Processes (assbt 1995)

The Amalgamated Sugar Company has been involved for years in the application of ion exclusion chromatography to the enhanced recovery of sucrose from sugarbeet process streams. Laboratory-scale tests of a simulated moving bed chromatography system for sucrose recovery from sugarbeet molasses were initiated in August 1981 and pilot scale tests were begun shortly thereafter. The technology developed in this continuing project led to construction and start-up of the world's first process-scale simulated moving bed chromatography system for molasses treatment at the Hokkaido Sugar Company's Kitami Factory in 1985 and the first such U.S. system at Amalgamated's Twin Falls factory in 1988. Continuing research on ion exclusion applications in sugarbeet molasses treatment has led to the licensing of other systems in Europe and the United States. Most recently, interest has been directed to the purification of diffusion juice directly by ion exclusion.