New approaches for the determination of dextran in the sugar production process

Abstract

The presence of polysaccharides in cane and beet raw juices causes several negative effects during the sugar manufacture. These are usually mitigated by enzymatic decomposition of dextrans. Such effects not only depend on the content, but also on the molecular mass distribution. This means that the different dextran fractions specifically affect the process. An accurate process control hence requires the most precise knowledge about the existing content and the molecular mass distribution present. A detailed understanding of the specific processing problems and also a targeted enzyme application hence requires the determination of a total dextran content and also its characterization including the differentiation between the different dextran fractions. An accurate analytical tool which equally satisfies industrial applicability is still lacking. To improve on this situation, two new approaches for the determination of dextran were developed and benchmarked against the commonly used and established Haze Method, which is rather inaccurate and also sensitive to molecular mass variation. The two new approaches are both based on polarimetry. These two methods indicate to be superior over the Haze Method with respect two molecular mass variation and hence enable the determination of a broader molecular size range including also low molecular mass dextrans.