Pezhman Zolfaghari - Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Tabriz, ۵۱۶۶۶-۱۶۴۷۱ Tabriz, Iran
Neda Imani Payandeh - Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, ۵۱۶۶۶-۱۶۴۷۱ Tabriz,Iran
Afzal Karimi - Faculty of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, ۱۴۴۹۶۱۴۵۳۵ Tehran, Iran

The formation of highly diverse chemical colorants during the raw sugar processing stage in sugar industries negatively affects the physical and chemical properties of the final product. In order to eliminate these compounds, a decolorization process is necessary. In this work, a biological process was coupled with physical adsorption to decolorize beet sugar syrup. In the proposed novel process, mesoporous MnO2 particles were synthetized and used for adsorption of the colorants. On the other hand, Glucose Oxidase (GOx) enzyme was employed to chemically degrade organic colorants by the aid of Glucose and MnO2. The efficiency of the coupled process was affected by many operational parameters, such as temperature, pH value and the concentrations of GOx and Glucose. The optimum point of operation was found to be the temperature of 30 œC, pH value of 7 and [GOx] = 0.07 g and [Glucose] = 20 mM. At this point, decolorization of 78.85 % was achieved. The proposed MnO2/GOx process was found to be utterly effective, eco-friendly and healthy, making it a possible candidate for industrial application.

Beet sugar syrup, Biological process, Decolorization, Glucose oxidase, Manganese oxide.