Towards the continuous production of fructose syrups from inulin using inulinase entrapped in PVA-based particles

The use of fructose in food and pharmaceutical formulations has gained some relevance because of its sweetening properties. The enzymatic hydrolysis of inulin has been studied as an alternative to conventional approaches for fructose production. The present work focuses on the improvement and characterization of a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based method for inulinase immobilization, and in establishing the feasibility of its application in a continuous process. Results show an enhancement of thermal, operational and storage stabilities resulting from the use of glutaraldehyde during the immobilization procedure, with the penalty of a slight increase in diffusion limitations. The continuous production of fructose from a 5% (w/v) inulin solution was performed for 20 days, with an initial volumetric productivity of 146.4 g/L/h and a product yield of 100%. After that period the production yield was still of 75%, suggesting the potential of the studied approach to be used in a large-scale process.