Not so long ago, I asked how to make golden syrup.
Now I am wondering how to extract glucose and fructose from it. I would then like to separate the fructose from the glucose (while keeping both of the materials.)
When I made the syrup I used citric acid as a catalyst.
How would you start the extraction if I only need glucose and fructose (separated)? I have no idea.
Extraction in terms of selectively extracting either glucose or fructose from the syrup is going to be difficult to impossible, at least as far as achieving any reasonable degree of purity is concerned. The glucose-fructose separation method preferred by Dow Chemical is called ligand exchange chromatography. According to this publication:
Unlike the macroporous structure of DOWEX™ resins used in deashing, DOWEX MONOSPHERE™ 99 separation resins are gel beads which have a smooth, uniform surface. While macroporous resins are opaque, gel resins are translucent. Chromatographic separation resins are functionalized and the beads contain a significant amount of water. While going through the column sections, the sugars to be separated dissolve in the water contained within the beads. Inside the bead, the dissolved sugars interact with the calcium ions held by the resin. Fructose, glucose and water form weak ligand complexes with the calcium ion. A stronger interaction in the fructose/calcium ion complex than in the glucose/calcium ion complex is the basis of the mechanism of separation of fructose from glucose.
As this is a readily available commercial product designed for use on massive scales, constructing a simple separation column based on these separation resins as described in the publication above should be a very doable, cost-effective approach to your problem.
