Processing of biomass hydrolysates will increase in future as the sugar platform in biorefineries is employed to an increasing extent. Monosaccharides in the hydrolysates may be separated as a sugar group for fermentation or as individual sugars for use in the food and pharmaceutical industry. Chromatographic separation of sugars using ion exchange (IEX) resins is an interesting alternative for these purposes. The current status and use of IEX resins in the chromatographic separation of sugars is discussed. Based on industrial practice, process synthesis principles and heuristics are presented for the selection of a feasible IEX resin and separation sequence. Two case studies are presented and the viability of the synthesized sequences is verified experimentally.