Sugar and Syrup Decolorization

Sugar Processing Generates Colour Bodies

Cane and beet sugar processing generates a range of colour bodies during the boiling, crystallisation, and storage stages: caramels from thermal degradation, melanoidins from Maillard reactions between reducing sugars and amino acids, polyphenols from the raw material extraction. These colour bodies have to be removed before the final crystallisation to meet the contracted ICUMSA colour grade for the refined product, typically 45 IU for white sugar, 100 to 300 IU for refined sugars.

PAC Slurry Contact at the Affination Stage

The SorbiTech decolorization route uses powdered activated carbon (PAC) dosed into the contact tank at the affination or carbonation stage. The carbon is added at 0.5 to 2 percent of the dry solids weight, given 20 to 30 minutes of mixing at the working temperature (typically 65 to 85 °C), then filtered out together with the captured colour bodies. Bleaching earth or diatomaceous earth as filter aid carries the spent carbon to the filter cake.

Grade Selection by Laboratory Test

PAC grade selection follows a laboratory decolorization test on the actual sugar stream, not the iodine number alone. The SorbiTech laboratory runs the test against the operator target ICUMSA, identifies the dose that achieves the target, and recommends the matching grade with full backup data. The recommendation forms the technical basis for the operator procurement and the change control record.

Food Grade Documentation

Every shipment ships with Halal and Kosher certification (held on the standard grades), the certificate of analysis covering heavy metals, ash, moisture, and decolorization, and the FDA and EU Regulation 10/2011 documentation where the operator regulatory regime requires it. Sector coverage is food and beverage.