Abstract
The isolation of component sugars from biomass represents an important step in the bioprocessing of sustainable feedstocks such as sugar beet pulp. Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) is used here, as an alternative to multiple resin chromatography steps, to fractionate component monosaccharides from crude hydrolysed sugar beet pulp pectin. CPC separation of samples, prepared in the stationary phase, was carried out using an ethanol: ammonium sulphate (300gL−1) phase system (0.8:1.8v:v) in ascending mode. This enabled removal of crude feedstream impurities and separation of monosaccharides into three fractions (l-rhamnose, l-arabinose and d-galactose, and d-galacturonic acid) in a single step. Throughput was improved three-fold by increasing sample injection volume, from 4 to 16% of column volume, with similar separation performance maintained in all cases. Extrusion of the final galacturonic acid fraction increased the eluted solute concentration, reduced the total separation time by 24% and removed the need for further column regeneration. Reproducibility of the separation after extrusion was validated by using multiple stacked injections. Scale-up was performed linearly from a semi-preparative 250mL column to a preparative 950mL column with a scale-up ratio of 3.8 applied to mobile phase flow rate and sample injection volume. Throughputs of 9.4gL−1h−1 of total dissolved solids were achieved at the preparative scale with a throughput of 1.9gL−1h−1 of component monosaccharides. These results demonstrate the potential of CPC for both impurity removal and target fractionation within biorefinery separations.
Highlights
Sugar beet pulp (SBP) is an abundant low value by-product from the sugar beet processing industry, which, in the UK, utilises around 8 million tonnes of sugar beet per year
The colouration could be the result of degradation of the GA [21,22] and neutral monosaccharides, such as fructose [23], during the hydrolysis step leading to the formation of browning products
Being a liquid–liquid separation technique, Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) can cope with a large volume of sample, it is important to find a balance between high throughput, purity and yield without disturbing the hydrodynamic equilibrium within the column
Summary
Sugar beet pulp (SBP) is an abundant low value by-product from the sugar beet processing industry, which, in the UK, utilises around 8 million tonnes of sugar beet per year. SBP is a rich source of carbohydrates, primarily consisting of cellulose and pectin with a low lignin content (1–2%) [1]. Sugar beet pectin has poor gelling properties due to its high degree of esterification [2], limiting its use as. As a result SBP has generally been dried and pelleted for sale as low value animal feed [4]. Its abundance, low cost and high carbohydrate content indicates that SBP could be a significant sustainable feedstock for the production of chemical and pharmaceutical intermediates, while simultaneously undergoing waste valorisation within an integrated sugar beet biorefinery
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