Cellulosic sugars can be extracted from various sources such as wheat straw, paper pulp processes, corn stover, cane bagasse, hardwood or softwood. These sugars can be used as carbon sources for fermentation processes or as raw materials for further transformation into building blocks.
Cellulosic sugars include:
- C5 sugar monomers: xylose, arabinose, etc.
- C6 sugar monomers: mannose, glucose, fructose, galactose, etc.
- Multiple oligo-saccharides
Many pathways can be used to produce cellulosic sugars, depending on the biomass source and the hydrolysis route (organosolv, steam explosion, enzymatic, acid/caustic, etc.). The numerous pathways to produce cellulosic sugars can create significant challenges for the downstream purification of these sugars particularly at industrial-scale.
Thanks to Novasep’s process development expertise and technologies, we are able provide customers with complete manufacturing process solutions from R&D to industrial scale commissioning.
FROM HYDROLYSATE TO PURE CELLULOSIC SUGAR
Novasep’s Kerasep® cross-flow filtration technologies provide robust and cost-effective filtration solutions to remove more than 99.5% of suspended solids from biomass. Kerasep® ceramic membranes are the industrial reference for broth clarification, with an unrivalled, guaranteed operational lifetime.
Demineralization can be performed with our Applexion™ ion exchange technologies, to reduce the ash and ion content by up to 99.5%. Ion exchange can be combined with industrial electrodialysis technology which can result in a 10-fold reduction in chemicals consumption.
Residual furfural, hydroxyl-methyl-furfural (HMF) and other color precursors can be removed using adsorption solutions. The concentration unit can be adapted to your OPEX/CAPEX strategy.
To refine cellulosic sugars (monomers or oligomers), Novasep’s SSMB chromatography is the most innovative industrial technique to fractionate sugar mixtures. SSMB can be used to separate sugar monomers from oligosaccharides or recover only a single sugar monomer.
The main benefits of SSMB chromatography include: 
- High purity fractions (>95%)
- High recovery yield (>97%)
- Low water consumption with no chemicals required
- Operation with water or solvents
