Polysaccharide Production

Polysaccharides are a chemical compound found in nature, notable as being the most abundant carbohydrate in food. To break the word down, “saccharide” is another term for sugar, and “poly” refers to a large number of these sugar molecules linked into a stable structure. 

In industrial practice, polysaccharides are recognized as either base materials or additives such as starch, cellulose, pectin, dextran, and chitin. Polysaccharides are used in many industries as ingredients for foods, medicines, health supplements, cosmetics, biotechnologies, waste treatment, and even building materials. In the simplest terms, polysaccharides are selected for functional purposes like enhancing a food’s nutritional value, providing a neutral substrate for the delivery of medicine, or for physically reinforcing material structures to make them stronger.

Polysaccharide processing crosses into both chemical and hygienic processing domains, depending on its end product. Across both product markets, polysaccharides can be organically extracted from natural sources or synthesized in a reaction process. Starting with base materials, polysaccharides are often prepared via extraction, separation, and purification steps. Within these steps, specific unit operations being performed include mixing, blending, sizing, sorting, stripping, drying, heating, cooling, and certain targeted chemical reactions.   

Lodige has designed, built, installed, and commissioned equipment systems that serve the following polysaccharide processes:

• Dry cationization
• Carboxymethylation
• Fermentation
• Dextrinization
• Dough Making
• Gluten Separation
• Pulp Treatment
• General Chemical Reactions for Isolation, Separation, and Purification
• Water and Solvent Extraction
• Precipitation
• Conditioning and Granulation of Cellulose
• Volatile Component Stripping

The commercial uses of polysaccharide products can be broken down into these three categories: 

• Food: used as a refined gum or concentrate product used to modify texture, suspend ingredients, alter rheology, and amplify nutritional value. Examples include adding pectin as a dietary fiber, corn starch to smooth out the mouth feel of chocolate milk, and xanthan gum to stabilize low-pH viscosity in salad dressings. 
• Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics: used for similar texture and rheological purposes as with food, as well as to provide some therapeutic benefits. Examples include using alginate to bind with calcium for antacid properties, fucoidan to act as a blood anticoagulant, and dextran as an inert plasma thickener. 
• Heavy Industrial: used for structural and physical property benefits in a wide range of fluid, solid, and biotech applications. Examples include using sodium alginate to bind dyes in cotton textile printing, guar gum to add viscosity in fracking fluids, and chitin for bolstering heavy metal separation.