Young Skin Thanks to Sugar

By Werner Schandor Since the EU sugar quota was liberalised, the market price is low, and sugar stocks are full. An international team has been conducting research on how sucrose can be valorized on an industrial scale. Up to 300,000 tonnes of sugar per year is estimated to be piling up in Europe. The fact that not only sweet things can be made from sucrose is an opportunity for sugar growers. Using biochemical methods a wide range of components for cosmetics, cleaning agents and bioplastics can be made from the sugar constituents glucose and fructose. "The CARBAFIN project is about scaling available biotechnological knowledge and methods to an industrial level and to find out whether the processes are economically viable," says Christiane Luley. The biochemist is an expert in enzyme technology and the project manager of CARBAFIN.