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February 1995

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a new technology
by chen zhongping 19 Feb '95

19 Feb '95

The technology for producing invert sugar from cane sugar has improved significantly. The conversion of sucrose may reach 96% or above, resulting in more than 48% fructose content on dry basis. After careful refining processes, the 71% final product looks clear and colorless just like distilled water, tasted nice with a sweetness higher than ordinary F-42 High Fructose Corn Syrup. It has been proved that this product is more stable in its shelf life than the previous one. The troubles existing in similar invert sugar prepared through old technology include: inferior outlook and taste, unstable in shelf life, ready to become yellow, turbid, and crystallization. The required investment for industrial production employing this newly developed technology will be much less than a High Fructose Corn Syrup factory with the same output. The scale of invert sugar factory may be flexible, for example, 5 - 10 metric ton per day. It is estimated that a 1t/h boiler can satisfy the steam requirement for a 20t/d invert sugar factory, and other facilities are also relatively smaller. This technology might be applied in those regions where the supply of cane sugar is abundant, to manufacture F-48 Fructose - Glucose syrup with different output; or those soft drink manufacturers who are using cane sugar while wish to improve the taste of their final products. Background, industrial feasibility analysis for invert sugar Background There are mainly three types of commercial fructose-containing syrups: Invert sugar, F-42 HFCS and F-55 HFCS. The first one is made by hydrolysis of cane sugar (sucrose), contains same amount of fructose and glucose (for example, 48% for each); the latter two HFCS are made from corn starch. F-42 contains 42% of fructose and 53 % glucose, while F-55 contains 55% of fructose and 41% glucose, the remains are oligosaccharides which are less sweet. Invert sugar and F-55 are both as sweet as sucrose, while F-42 is less sweet than sucrose. Because F-42 has a glucose content higher than 50%, it will readily crystallize under temperatures lower than 10℃, which is a shortcoming to storage and transportation. Main applications of fructose-containing syrups include soft drink, beverage and bakery, etc. It is said that the annual output of HFCS in US alone was 6,000,000 tons, 200,000 tons in Taiwan, 150,000 tons in GB. However, in China mainland, no more than 50,000 tons was produced last year. In recent two decades, China imported 4 HFCS factories from western countries, and a number of home-designed smaller ones have been built in different parts. Perhaps due to the higher price of corn starch as well as higher cost for the manufacturing process, the price of F-42 and F-55 kept remarkably higher than sucrose on dry basis. And this retarded the development of HFCS market in China mainland. On the other hand, sucrose production has been developed rapidly in these years. As a result, a big surplus and low price of sucrose appeared. It became clear that at present producing invert sugar would be more profitable than HFCS. If the sales price of fructose-containing syrups dropped to some degree, the sales volume of them could be expected to increase significantly. Technical feasibility In terms of fructose content, invert sugar can also be named as F-48. By carefully choosing the conditions for hydrolysis and purification, the quality of invert sugar product can be as good as F-42. Below is a table showing the main item comparison of different types of fructose-containing syrups: Analysis results of different Fructose-containing syrups Items Commercial F-42 Commercial F-55 X-965 Specs Standard Solid content % 71.2 71.3 71.1 ≥71.0 pH value 3.38 3.44 4.16 3.5 -5.0 DE value 95.03 97.06 98.26 ≥95 Transparency（420 nm） 99% 86% 100% ------ Transparency（720 nm） 100% 100% 100% ≥99% Conductivity (MS/cm) 46 167 11.5 ----- HPLC results Area % of fructose 44.3 58.51 52.25 ------ Area % of glucose 53.25 38.13 45.14 ------ Area % of others 2.45 3.36 2.61 ------ Notes to the samples analyzed: Commercial F-42 sample was donated by a factory and stored at room temperature for a year. Commercial F-55 sample was given by a sales agency, its shelf life is unknown. X-965 sample was prepared in our lab and kept at room temperature for a month. HPLC analysis results: relationships between area - weight ratios have not been calibrated. The area percentages would not directly show the weight percentage. However, they can indicate the relative contents of their ingredients in different samples. It can be seen from the above table that invert sugar sample has higher transparency and lower electric conductivity, which means higher clearness, less color and salt content. Its fructose content is between F-42 and F-55. Therefore on the whole the quality of invert sugar is competitive to the HFCS. Economic feasibility At present the commercial prices for relative products in China market are roughly as follows: Cane sugar(white) F-42 HFCS (71%) F-55 HFCS (72+%) Invert sugar (71%) 2,500 RMB/ton 3,800 RMB/ton 5,200 RMB/ton Not available Each ton of sucrose can be converted to yield 1.35 tons of 71% invert sugar syrup. Suppose an invert sugar plant with daily productivity of 30 tons were to be built, an investment of around 4,000,000 RMB would be required. Half of this were for the facilities, another half for land, housing, license and registration, etc. Such a plant could be completed within 3 - 6 months after construction commence. When it were put into run, the tentative estimation of its profit is listed below: Payout for each working day: Cane sugar: 55,500 RMB Chemicals: 5,000 RMB Energy: 6,000 RMB Labor: 3,000 RMB Transportation: 6,000 RMB Management: 3,000 RMB Tax: 6,000 RMB Total cost: 84,500 RMB Income from each working day: Sales volume: (based on the price of 3,500 RMB/ton) 105,000 RMB Net profit: 20,500 RMB Payoff period: within a year. Suggestion and recommendation China has the largest population. She produces huge amount of sucrose and the second largest volume of corn in the world. Her soft-drink/beverage industry develops fast. Therefore it can be expected that HFCS industry have a bright future in China. At present initiating this industry from invert sugar maybe a profitable and feasible strategy. The main existing HFCS market is located in the south and/or east part of China. Guangzhou and Shanghai are recommended as the first choice to start with. Either solo- or joint-venture could be possible. Anyone who is interested in this technology, please contact me. chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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