Specialty chemicals company LANXESS India is presenting its innovative Lewatit ion-exchange resins tailored for sugar decolorization and purification at the 83rd STAI Centennial Annual Convention & International Sugar Expo from 24th to 26th July, 2025 at Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre, New Delhi.

Lewatit ion exchange resins are an established and indispensable component in the food and beverage industry. Lewatit S resins are certified in many countries around the world for the processing of food, beverages, and food and drink additives. The Lewatit S series has, among other things, Halal and Kosher certifications.

Lewatit ion exchangers and Lewatit adsorbers play a crucial role in separation processes. Often there is no alternative to isolating, enriching, and cleaning valuable materials from the liquid phase. Lewatit makes a decisive contribution to giving the products resulting from separation processes a purity, shelf life, pleasant taste, and good appearance that meets specifications.

The color of sugar juice from beet and cane increases during the production process. Colorants such as caramel color bodies are formed. When producing refined sugar, various Lewatit adsorber resins based on styrene or acrylic polymers can be used to decolorize sugar syrups with more than 1,000 ICU to meet all quality requirements in the sugar industry.

Excellent operating capacity, low chemical, and low water consumption are key considerations in plant operation. Monodisperse macroporous or gel-type Lewatit ion exchange resins offer major advantages for the decolorization process of food ingredients.

In addition to decolorization, LANXESS offers optimized solutions for reverse demineralization of non-inverted liquid sugar. Liquid sugar, which is widely used in the food industry, benefits from ion exchange processes that enable complete demineralization through exchange at the functional groups with cations and anions.

The ion exchange system for reverse demineralization comprises strong base anion exchange resin (SBA) and weak acid cation exchange resin (WAC) units to avoid the formation of inverted sugar. The first stage involves removing the anionic impurities and the second stage involves removing the cationic counterparts (removal of cations).