NIR analysis of molasses chromatographic separation streams

The chromatographic separation processes used in the beet sugar industry fo r the separation of sucrose from molasses have advanced significantly durin g the last 15 years. Developments in chromatographic separation have seen t he movement from batch separations to continuous separations biased on both simulated moving bed systems and sequential systems. Systems in use today separate two or three components. Instrumentation used on chromatographic s eparators typically consists of conductivity detectors and on-line refracto meters. This paper describes the use of on-line NIR for the determination of sucros e, rds, betaine, and solution absorbance, It shows the work completed on th e determination of calibrations for these substances, and provides examples on the use of data available from an on-line NIR spectrophotometer.