Abstract
Maltitol is one of the low-calorie sweeteners which has a major role in food industries. Due to its characteristics of comparable sweetness level to sucrose, maltitol can be a suitable sugar replacement. In this work, catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) was examined in maltitol production through hydrogenation of maltose. Commercial ceramic membrane impregnated with Kalcat 8030 Nickel was used as the CMR. The reaction was conducted at a batch mode operation, 95 to 110°C of temperature, and 5 to 8 bar of pressure. In the range of working conditions used in this study, up to 47% conversion was achieved. The reaction conversion was significantly affected by temperature and pressure. Results of this preliminary study indicated that CMR can be used for hydrogenation of maltose with good performance under a relatively low operating pressure.
Highlights
Low calorie sweetener usage shows a significant increase recently
The effect of temperature and pressure on hydrogenation reaction conversion and profile are shown in Fig. 2 (a) to (b)
It can be observed that both operating parameters have the significant effect on hydrogenation reaction conversion
Summary
Low calorie sweetener usage shows a significant increase recently. This is due to an improved paradigm in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Studies on hydrogenation reactions of maltose in conventional batch slurry reactors can be found in literature [1–8]. The drawback of this conventional reactor is a poor contact between reactant and catalyst. A high operating pressure, e.g. 20-30 bar, is usually used It usually requires a relatively high investment cost due to system complexity. This necessitates the improvement of hydrogenation reactor to overcome the gas-liquid interface constraint as well as to simplify the hydrogenation reaction design
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