Study of sweet water recovery in the Marseilles Saint-Louis Sucre refineryusing High-Performance Anion-Exchange chromatography with Pulsed Amperometric Detection

The levels of sucrose, D-glucose, D-fructose, and oligosaccharides were mon itored in sweet waters at various desweetening steps involved in cane sugar processing at the Marseilles Saint-Louis Sucre refinery. This was carried out using an accurate analytical method for carbohydrate determination: Hig h-Performance Anion-Exchange chromatography with Pulsed Amperometric Detect ion (HPAE-PAD). Other conventional refinery measurements, Brix and pH were also investigated. A series of sweet waters resulting from the decolorisati on resin plant or the Faure filters was analysed as well as pH, Brix, and l evels of the mentioned sugars. It appears that the storage and reuse of the sweet waters resulting from desweetening 3 by the resins is not of interes t due to its low level of sucrose. Concerning the desweetening of the Faure filters, only the sweet waters resulting from the filtration seem worth co nserving with regard to their sucrose level. Nevertheless, the invert sugar level under these conditions is high.