Chemical isomerization of glucose to fructose production

Abstract

Efficient chemical catalyst is becoming a research hotspot in isomerization of glucose to fructose, because the chemical catalyst rather than enzyme has a wider operating temperature range, a longer lifetime and a higher resistance to impurities. The most commonly used chemical catalysts for isomerization of glucose to fructose can be divided into five principal groups, such as homogeneous bases, heterogeneous bases, Lewis acids, aluminates and subcritical water. Thus, the focus of this review is mainly on isomerization of glucose to fructose by using chemical catalysts and mechanistic aspects of the isomerization reaction in order to gather maximum information in one manuscript for a better comprehension of the technological characteristics and specificities of fructose synthesis.