The analysis results of the waste mother liquor during erythritol production showed that the solids contents were approximately 70%,the erythritol accounted for 30% of the solids contents,and the ash accounted for 20% of the solids contents,no glucose was detected.The HPLC results showed that there were two unknown sugar alcohol components in the mother liquor besides erythritol.This paper mainly discussed the feasibility of the recovery of erythritol from the waste mother liquor,and focused on the desalting effect on the mother liquor and its influence on the recoveries of erythritol.Based on the exchange capacity and adsorption characteristics,two best ion exchange resins,D315 and 001*7,were screened.After the decolorization of waste mother liquor,the series connection of double pillar was employed and the desalting rate could reach 98.5%.Finally,according to the vacuum distillation and crystallization,the recovery rate reached 47.3% and the purity could reach more than 99%.