The Conclusion should be replaced by the following:
Conclusion
In this study, different activated carbons were used to modify the color of an unclassified low grade dark maple syrup. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of the used activated carbons showed that they are all different from each other by their specific and contact surface areas, as well as by their roughness. Moreover, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) showed that the chemical composition of these activated carbons is also different from each other.
By using the activated carbon defined as type III carbon, we obtained the light transmittance of 83.70 ± 0.2%. This result was obtained under the following operating conditions: type III activated carbon used at a concentration of 0.3% at a mixing time of 40 min. The optimized experimental conditions showed that the adsorption on the surface of the activated carbon was favored by a particle size of 25 μm under an operating temperature of 80 °C and mixing speed of 200 rpm.
The adsorption kinetics on the activated carbon surface under different experimental parameters was verified according to different adsorption isotherm models. The two-parametric Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, as well as a three-parametric Langmuir–Freundlich isotherm model, were tested. It has been shown that the color modification of the used unclassified low grade dark maple syrup by using the type III activated carbon can be predicted by the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Langmuir–Freundlich isotherm models, depending on the experimental conditions used. Unlike the pseudo-first-order kinetics, it has been shown that the color modification of the dark maple syrup by using the type III activated carbon can be described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic.
However, it is very important to mention that the decolorization of maple syrup is illegal in all maple-producing regions in the USA and Canada. Thus, the results of this study cannot be exploited to decolorize maple syrup and that a decolorized syrup cannot be sold as maple syrup.