MATEC Web of Conferences 156, 08008 (2018)

https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201815608008
RSCE 2017

Hydrogenation of Maltose in Catalytic Membrane Reactor for

Maltitol Production
I.G.B.N. Makertihartha1, Khoiruddin1, Ahmad N. Hakim1, P.T.P. Aryanti2, and I.G. Wenten1,*
1Chemical Engineering Department, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jalan Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
2Chemical Engineering Department, Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani, Jl. Ters. Jend. Sudirman, Cimahi 40285, Indonesia

Abstract. Maltitol is one of the low-calorie sweeteners which has a major role in food industries.
Due to its characteristics of comparable sweetness level to sucrose, maltitol can be a suitable
sugar replacement. In this work, catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) was examined in maltitol
production through hydrogenation of maltose. Commercial ceramic membrane impregnated with
Kalcat 8030 Nickel was used as the CMR. The reaction was conducted at a batch mode
operation, 95 to 110oC of temperature, and 5 to 8 bar of pressure. In the range of working
conditions used in this study, up to 47% conversion was achieved. The reaction conversion was
significantly affected by temperature and pressure. Results of this preliminary study indicated that
CMR can be used for hydrogenation of maltose with good performance under a relatively low
operating pressure.

1 Introduction used CMR for hydrogenation of sunflower seed oil. The

hydrogenation reaction was not affected by interfacial
Low calorie sweetener usage shows a significant transport resistance and intraparticle diffusion limitation.
increase recently. This is due to an improved paradigm Bottino et al [31] reported a study of hydrogenation-
in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Maltitol is one of isomeration of methylenecyclohexane in a CMR and
these calorie sweetener that has a major role in food compared with the conventional reactor. They also found
industry. Since maltitol has a comparable characteristic that the hydrogenation reaction in a catalytic membrane
and sweetness level to sucrose, it makes maltitol suitable reactor was controlled by kinetic regime and thus the
as sugar replacement. Moreover, maltilol can be used as reaction conversion could be increase while avoiding the
an intermediate product for pharmaceuticals industry [1]. high pressure operation. In this work, performance of
Generally, maltose hydrogenation is carried out in a CMR in hydrogenation of maltose is investigated. A
batch slurry reactor. Studies on hydrogenation reactions ceramic membrane is used as CMR and commercial
of maltose in conventional batch slurry reactors can be nickel catalyst is impregnated in the membrane pores.
found in literature [1–8]. The drawback of this The effect of temperature and pressure on reaction
conventional reactor is a poor contact between reactant conversion is analyzed and discussed.
and catalyst. Therefore, a high operating pressure, e.g.
20-30 bar, is usually used. Consequently, it usually
requires a relatively high investment cost due to system 2 Materials and method
complexity. This necessitates the improvement of
Maltose used in this study has a 60o Brix concentration.
hydrogenation reactor to overcome the gas-liquid
Kalcat 8030 Nickel was used as catalyst. Technical
interface constraint as well as to simplify the
grade citric acid and demineralized water were used to
hydrogenation reaction design.
prepare catalyst suspension. High purity hydrogen
Nowadays, membrane technology is used in almost
(99.9%) was used in hydrogenation reaction. Tubular
industrial processes and starts to replace the competing
ceramic membrane was used as membrane reactor
conventional technologies due to its interesting features
(Al2O3, 100 kDa MWCO, 19 channels, 4 mm inside
[9–19]. Membrane offers the advantages of relatively
diameter, and 0.3 m length).
lower foot print, lower cost, easy to scale-up, and more
Experimental set up for catalyst impregnation and
energy intensive [20–23]. Membrane also provides a
hydrogenation reaction are shown in Fig. 1 a and b.
possibility to combines a several steps or processes into
Catalyst impregnation was conducted by circulating
a hybrid process thus an intensified process can be
catalyst suspension which contained 25 g catalyst in 500
obtained [24–29]. CMR is a hybrid membrane process
mL citric acid solution (20%). After circulation, the
which facilitates catalytic reaction and contact between
membrane was drying in oven at 80oC for 6 h and then
reactants. CMR was used by several studies to replace
calcinated at 200oC for 3 h. Hydrogenation was
the conventional hydrogenation reactor. Veldsink [30]

*
Corresponding author: [email protected]
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
MATEC Web of Conferences 156, 08008 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201815608008
RSCE 2017

conducted for 6 h at various operating temperatures and

pressures. Between each reaction, membrane module
was flush with demineralized water. Subsequently, the
membrane was flushed with nitrogen. Every 45 min.
reduced sugar content was analyzed by Eynon-Lane
titration method in Ref. [32].

Fig. 1. Experimental set up. (a) Schematic of CMR, (b)

photograph of experimental set up, (c) catalyst impregnation,
and (b) hydrogenation reaction in CMR. Fig. 2. Reaction conversion and reaction rate at various
temperature (a; at 8 bar) and pressure (b; at 110oC).

3 Results and discussion

The effect of temperature and pressure on hydrogenation
reaction conversion and profile are shown in Fig. 2 (a) to
(b). It can be observed that both operating parameters
have the significant effect on hydrogenation reaction
conversion. Temperature is one of the parameters that
influence the kinetic rate. As the temperature increases,
the reaction rate is increased. Operating pressure has a
similar effect on reaction conversion. The reaction
conversion increases with the increase of pressure. A
drastic increase of reaction conversion is observed from
5 to 6 bar. It may be due to the minimum reaction
condition was not achieved at 5 bar. In addition, it can be
observed that reaction conducted at 6 bar has a
conversion reaction which closes to that at 8 bar. It may
be implied that contact between the multiple phases of
reactants in the catalytic membrane reactor is good
enough and no more depended on the dispersion of gas
phase in the reactants mixture.
Reaction scheme, C/Co, reaction conversion at
various reaction time at 6 bar and 110oC can be observed
in Fig. 3. According to the reaction scheme, the nth-order
reaction rate equation can be writen as I = dC/dt = -kCn.
By assuming that the reaction rate follows the first order
mechanism (n = 1), the integration of the reaction rate Fig. 3. (a) Reaction scheme of maltose hydrogenation, (b)
will result in a linear correlation between ln (C/Co) and t C/Co vs t (at 8 bar and 110oC), and (c) ln C/Co vs t (at 6 bar
with the slope of the linear plot is the negative value of and 110oC).
rate constant, –k. Linear regression of the experimental
ln(C/Co) vs t plot gives high R-square value of 95.13% In a conventional reactor, a high hydrogen pressure is
and the rate constant of the hydrogenation reaction, k, usually used to overcome the mass-transfer or diffusion
can be estimated to be 3.3 x 10-5 s-1. The high R-square limitation in a three-phase mixture. In this study, at a
value proves that the assumption of first order maximum pressure of 8 bar, reaction conversion of 47%
mechanism is satisfied.

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MATEC Web of Conferences 156, 08008 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201815608008
RSCE 2017

can be obtained. Even at lower pressure, 6 bar, the was significantly affected by temperature and pressure.
conversion is almost similar. This operating pressure is Results of this preliminary study indicated that CMR can
far below the operating pressure that usually used in be used for hydrogenation of maltose with a good
conventional reactors (see Table 1). The reaction rate is performance under a relatively low operating pressure.
also higher compared to the conventional reactors.
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