We all like to use sugar, and not just to bake Christmas cookies. Whether in coffee, tea or mulled wine: sweetness is a treat we enjoy each day. But before unrefined sugar can become white refined sugar or sugar syrup for the sweet industry, it must make its way through a rather long process. First, sugar beets and sugarcane are processed and an extract is derived from them. In addition to the coveted sucrose – the actual sugar – this extract also contains salts, acids and proteins. To remove these non-sugar components, the unrefined juice is blended with milk of lime and quicklime. Following this, carbon dioxide is added, and the result is a yellowish brown juice. This is where the ion exchange resins by LANXESS come in: They are used to filter the dark juice, softening it by removing the salts it contains. The result is a bright yellow, clear liquid. The liquid is then placed in evaporator stations to thicken it, passed through ion exchangers to remove the remaining coloration, and then crystallized. The end product is refined sugar: the highest grade of pure, white sugar.

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