Application of polystyrene-bound invertase to continuous sucrose hydrolysis on pilot scale

Invertase from baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) covalently bound to a macroporous polystyrene anion-exchange resin via glutaraldehyde was applied to continuous sucrose hydrolysis in packed bed-reactors. The process was scaled up from 3-mL laboratory reactors via 0.3-L reactors to pilot-scale 50-L reactors without significant loss of efficiency. The described process allows the production of a wide spectrum of invert sugar syrups with high purity in continuous procedure. The 50-L reactor was used under process conditions 1 year without significant loss of productivity at a temperature of 40 degrees C. A productivity of 760 g/h was obtained with 1 L invertase-polystyrene complex using a 2.5M sucrose solution as substrate.