Isolation of fructose from high-fructose corn syrup with calcium immobilized strong acid cation exchanger: Isotherms, kinetics, and fixed-bed chromatography study

In this work, a separation strategy for fructose purification from high‐fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was established, involving two consecutive instances of chromatography with Ca2+‐immobilized cation exchanger XA 2004/22. Among the 14 calcium ion form of strong acid cation exchangers tested, cation exchanger XA 2004/22 displayed the best adsorption performances for fructose, with the adsorption ratio of fructose to glucose reaching 2.32 at 303 K. The static equilibrium adsorption data of fructose on Ca2+‐immobilized cation exchanger XA 2004/22 closely fitted the linear equation, and the adsorption kinetic followed the pseudo‐second order model. Close agreement between the theoretical curves and the experimental breakthrough data was observed using the Thomas and Yoon‐Nelson models. Under the optimized conditions, fructose was prepared at a purity of 0.924 g/g (92.4 mass %) and 0.243 g/g (24.3 mass %) yield by two‐step packed bed chromatography with Ca2+‐immobilized cation exchanger XA 2004/22. Further introducing one step of simple cooling crystallization gave crystalline fructose at 0.99 g/g (99 mass %) purity.