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From:
Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:08:58 -0500
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> High fructose corn syrup may be used as a sweetener in processed foods and beverages and is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. Both sweeteners contain the same number of calories (4 per gram) and consist of about equal parts of fructose and glucose. Once absorbed into the blood stream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable. HFCS is a controversial topic and although not all nutrition professionals will readily accept the scientific evidence, this paper represents an evidenced-based, balanced perspective.

Kristine S. Clark, Ph.D., R.D., FACSM
Director of Sports Nutrition and Assistant Professor of Nutritional
Sciences, Penn State University
Published Online by the American Dietetic Association (ADA)

* * *

It has been an elusive goal for the legion of chemists trying to pull
it off: Replace crude oil as the root source for plastic, fuels and
scores of other industrial and household chemicals with inexpensive,
nonpolluting renewable plant matter.

Scientists took a giant step closer to the biorefinery today,
reporting in the journal Science that they have directly converted
sugars ubiquitous in nature to an alternative source for those
products that make oil so valuable, with very little of the residual
impurities that have made the quest so daunting.

"What we have done that no one else has been able to do is convert
glucose directly in high yields to a primary building block for fuel
and polyesters," said Z. Conrad Zhang, senior author who led the
research and a scientist with the PNNL-based Institute for Interfacial
Catalysis, or IIC.

That building block is called HMF, which stands for
hydroxymethylfurfural. It is a chemical derived from carbohydrates
such as glucose and fructose and is viewed as a promising surrogate
for petroleum-based chemicals.

Glucose, in plant starch and cellulose, is nature's most abundant
sugar. "But getting a commercially viable yield of HMF from glucose
has been very challenging," Zhang said. "In addition to low yield
until now, we always generate many different byproducts," including
levulinic acid, making product purification expensive and
uncompetitive with petroleum-based chemicals.

"The opportunities are endless," Zhang said, "and the chemistry is
starting to get interesting."

http://www.pnl.gov/news/release.asp?id=255

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