Process and equipment for chromatographic separation of fructose/dextrose solutions

Large-scale apparatus and process for chromatographic separation of fructose/dextrose sugar solutions employing large diameter beds of a strongly cationic salt of an ion exchange resin. The cationic ion exchange resin is densely and uniformly packed in a separation column by means of a resin loading method which includes washing the resin with a salt selected from the group of calcium, barium, strontium or silver salts of the resin. The shrunken resin is then placed in the column to completely fill the column. After sealing the column, excess salt is washed away to thereby expand the resin inside the confined separation column chamber. The uniformly dense packing of the resin in the separation column chamber eliminates the need for mechanical baffles which were formerly required to insure regular and uniform flow throughout the entire cross sectional area of the separation columns. Large diameter separation columns without baffles are made possible by the column packing method of the invention because undesirable channeling or irregular flow in the densely packed resin bed is virtually eliminated. A liquid feed stream containing fructose and dextrose and a second stream of elution water are fed through a series of separation columns in alternate, cyclic pulses. The liquid streams are further redistributed between the successive columns of the series to further increase the degree of separation of the output stream into a portion rich in fructose, and another output stream rich in dextrose.