Sucrose inversion process

1. A method of inverting sucrose, comprising:

(i) determining an initial solids concentration of an aqueous sucrose solution (solids i ), an initial bed volume (BV i ) of a sucrose inversion resin system, a minimum target inversion percentage (invert % min ), a maximum target inversion percentage (invert % max ), a target maximum hydroxymethylfuran (HMF) concentration (HMF max ), a minimum target pH (pH min ), or a maximum target pH (pH max );

(ii) contacting the sucrose inversion resin system with a first portion of the aqueous sucrose solution under conditions of aqueous solution flow rate in BV i /hr (rate p ) and aqueous solution temperature in ° C. (temperature p ) to produce a first portion of an inverted sucrose solution having an inversion percentage (invert % product ), an HMF concentration (HMF product ), and a pH (pH product );

(iii) determining an instantaneous inversion percentage (invert % inst ), an instantaneous HMF concentration (HMF inst ), and an instantaneous pH (pH inst ) of the first portion of the inverted sucrose solution;

(iv) leading the first portion of the inverted sucrose solution to downstream storage, and, if

invert % inst <invert % min ,

invert % inst >invert % max ,

HMF inst >HMF max ,

pH inst <PH min , or

pH inst >pH max

(v) changing the aqueous solution flow rate, the aqueous solution temperature, or both of a second portion of the aqueous sucrose solution such that

invert % min ≦invert % product ≦invert % max ,

HMF product ≦HMF max , or

pH min ≦pH product≦pH max .

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the changing step comprises changing the aqueous solution flow rate through the sucrose inversion resin system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the changing step comprises changing the aqueous solution temperature.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contacting step comprises contacting a cation exchange resin with the aqueous sucrose solution and contacting an anion exchange resin with at least a portion of the aqueous sucrose solution, and the changing step comprises changing the aqueous solution flow rate through the anion exchange resin.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous solution flow rate is between about 1 BV i /hr and about 5 BV i /hr.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the aqueous solution flow rate is between about 2 BV i /hr and about 4 BV i /hr.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous solution temperature is between about 30° C. and about 55° C.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the aqueous solution temperature is between about 35° C. and about 45° C.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the instantaneous inversion percentage comprises polarimetric observation of the inverted sucrose solution.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein in the changing step:

the aqueous solution flow rate is increased to decrease invert % product or decrease HMF product or the aqueous solution flow rate is decreased to increase invert % product or increase HMF product ; or

the aqueous solution temperature is increased to increase invert % product or increase HMF product or the aqueous solution temperature is decreased to decrease invert % product or decrease HMF product .

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous solution flow rate and the aqueous solution temperature are determined or changed to yield a predicted instantaneous inversion percentage invert % inst,pred according to the equation:

invert % inst,pred =(−0.050×rate p )+(0.023×temperature p )+(−0.021×solids i )+1.125,

wherein

invert % min ≦invert % inst,pred ≦invert % max ,

or a predicted HMF concentration (HMF pred ) according to the equation:

HMF pred =(5.7×temperature p )+(−10.3571×rate p )−158

wherein

HMF pred ≦HMF max .