The process according to the invention, for producing sugar products from fruits, comprising the steps of:

i) demineralizing and decolorizing a fruit juice so as to bring its solid content to comprise from 99% wt to 99,99 % wt of a mixture of saccharides, alcohols and flavonoids;

iii) separating by chromatography the demineralized and decolorized fruit juice so as to obtain a glucose-enriched fraction or a fructose-enriched fraction from the fruit juice.

The solid content of the glucose-enriched fraction comprises at least from 70% wt to 99.99% wt of glucose; the solid content of the fructose-enriched fraction comprises from 70% wt to 99.99% wt of fructose.

The low content of anions and cations of the fruit juice to be treated by chromatography greatly increase the yield of the chromatographic treatment and the purity of the glucose- and fructose-enriched fractions obtained through it.

Compositions and methods for using them for hydrolyzing complex carbohydrates into their constitutent monosaccharide units are described. The compositions contain a hydrolyzing acid, an acylating agent and an alkylating agent or water. The method involves utilizing the hydrolyzing acid mixture to reduce native and/or derivatized carbohydrates to their individual monosaccharides and simultaneously acylating the clycosidic bonds of the monosaccharides to protect them against further degradation. The acylated monosaccharides are then deacylated to yield the monosaccharide monomers.

Syrup comprising a plurality of saccharides and compounded by a mixture of galactose, fructose and glucose respectively and substantially in the percentage of 40-45% of galactose, 25-27,5% of fructose and 26-28,5% of glucose, said syrup being the resulting product of a process which utilizes, at a level of raw material, lactose derived from ultrafiltration of whey, said whey being derived from cow or sheep milk, said ultrafiltration being able to produce serum-proteins and a permeate, said permeate being adapted to contain said lactose.

A process for the manufacture of a sweetener based on milk, in which lactose is hydrolysed while being transformed to glucose and galactose by means of a strongly acidic cation exchanger having a cross linking degree of between 5 and 10 % in a parallel flow of a lactose solution through a fixed bed of the strongly acidic cation exchanger, whereby the hydrolysis is run to a hydrolysing degree of 40-100 % at a temperature of 80-150°C or preferably 90-120°C and with a flow cycle speed of between 2 and 0,5 bed volumes per hour corresponding a cycle speed of transforming lactose to glucose and galactose of between 0,5 and 2 hours, whereupon the glucose-galactose product thereby obtained is cooled to a temperature of 10-20°C and is withdrawn for direct use, for being temporarily stored or for being further treated. The dry matter content of the treated lactose is kept at 40 to at least 80% or preferably 50 to 60%. The invention also relates to a sweetener manufactured according to the process.

The separation of mono- or disaccharids such as glucose or maltose from polysaccharides such as starch may be effected by passing a mixture of these saccharides through an ultra-filtration membrane whereby the glucose or maltose is separated from the starch. The ultra-filtration membranes which are employed for this purpose will comprise a cross-linked polyurethane composited on a support. As an example of the type of membrane which may be employed, an aminemodified polyepihalohydrin such as epichlorohydrin which has been cross-linked with toluene diisocyanate is composited on a polysulfone. This type of ultra-filtration membrane will permit the use of a relatively high flux with a good separation efficiency.

The present invention relates to methods of processing lignocellulosic material to obtain hemicellulose sugars, cellulose sugars, lignin, cellulose and other high-value products. Also provided are hemicellulose sugars, cellulose sugars, lignin, cellulose and other high-value products.

In a method for producing a sugar liquid comprising filtering a sugar liquid through a nanofiltration membrane and collecting a sugar liquid from the feed side, loss of sugar into the permeate side of the nanofiltration membrane can be reduced by filtering a sugar liquid containing an organic liquid compound having a relative dielectric constant of not less than 17 at 25°C through the nanofiltration membrane.