Zeolite-catalyzed hydrolysis of inulin to fructose in a fluidized bed reactor

Abstract

Conversion of fructan-rich substrates to fructose provides a suitable process for producing high fructose concentration syrups. In this paper, a heterogeneous model which describes the production of fructose from inulin in a zeolite-packed fluidized bed reactor was developed. The model accounts for external and internal mass transport resistances as well as the degree of back-mixing in the reactor. The kinetic model of the hydrolysis process which follows first order kinetics was obtained from the literature. The resulting model equations were solved analytically and the effect of some key parameters on the system performance was evaluated. The simulation results revealed that it is possible to achieve near complete conversion on inulin in the practical range of parameter values. This theoretical investigation was intended to shed some light and to provide guide lines for future experiments on the utilization of fluidized bed reactors for inulin hydrolysis.