Monitoring of sugars adsorption breakthrough curves with online Raman spectroscopy

We introduce a new application for online Raman spectroscopy to monitor adsorption breakthrough curves of a glucose and xylose mixtures. Univariate and multivariate Partial Least Squares (PLS) calibration models are developed for each sugar when they are dissolved in water and in the case of the ethanol addition as a cosolvent. The models are validated by performing actual breakthrough experiments in a liquid phase using a column packed with a zeolite adsorbent. The first statistical moments of predicted curves are compared to the reference curves obtained with offline High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Glucose and xylose univariate predictions in the presence or absence of ethanol in the mixture are accurate and no improvements are found with the PLS models. Spectral subtraction coupled with the first derivative proved to be effective pretreatments to develop robust univariate models.