Stevia is being used as a sweetener due to its low calorific value and its taste, which is very similar to that of sucrose. After extraction from dried leaves, stevia extract is dark in colour so needs to be clarified for better acceptance by consumers. Adsorption is one of the most important processes in this clarification. In this work the clarification of extract stevia extract in fixed-bed columns with calcium zeolites was studied. Two temperatures (10ºC and 30ºC) and six different flow rates (2, 5, 9, 12, 16 and 19 mL/min) were studied. The results showed that the mass-transfer coeffcient increases with an increase in flow rate and the length of unused bed reaches a maximum at 9 mL/min for both temperatures. The fit of the Thomas model with the breakthrough data was not very good.
stevia, zeolite; breakthrough curves; clarification; Thomas model
