Separation of Erythritol from Fermentation Broth Using Preparative Chromatography

Biologically obtained erythritol is produced by microorganisms during the fermentation of the carbon source. In this paper a process of erythritol desalination based on ion exchange chromatography is proposed. A strongly acidic cation exchanger in sodium form was used as the stationary phase. Experimental overload profiles were determined for the chromatographic separation of erythritol and sodium chloride (assuming a constant desalting of 96%). As a result, it was determined that the separation efficiency decreases with volume overload, and the process carried out for a 30–40% column load allows to obtain the highest separation efficiency.