Reduction of ammonia emissions and use of carbonatation vapors in sugar factories

Due to international agreements, there is a requirement to reduce ammonia emissions in beet sugar factories and to comply with the specified limit values. After looking at the sources of ammonia emissions in sugar factories, various ways of reducing these emissions are shown. In case of carbonatation exhaust gases in addition to reducing emissions, there is also the option of extracting heat from the exhaust gases and using it for technological purposes, which reduces the total energy consumption.

Improvement of the liquid-jet sulfitators construction to increase the efficiency of sulfitation treatment of sugar production liquids

The article discusses and analyzes the construction of liquid-jet sulfitators used in the beet sugar industry. The importance of sulfitation treatment in the sugar beet processing and raw cane sugar technology is noted and the main advantages of its use at various technological stages are given, namely, preparation of extractant used for diffusion sucrose extraction out of beet cossettes, thin juice processing, thick juice with B- and C-remelts processing, as well as raw cane sugar remelt processing. The advantages and disadvantages of liquid-jet sulfitators in comparison with other constructions are noted and criteria for their improvement are given. It has been noted that the created ejection, which sucks in the sulphitation gas into the contacting chamber, and the fact that the absorption of sulfur dioxide occurs on a larger surface than in other types of structures the main advantages of liquid-jet sulphitators. The main disadvantages are the short length of the contacting chamber, which is insufficient for ensuring complete absorption of sulfur dioxide, as well as instability of the generated ejection when the productivity changes. This determines the criteria given in the article for the improvement of liquid-jet sulfitators. The description of the developed construction of the sulphitator centrifugal-jet nozzle of sugar production liquids is given, which provides: the stability of the sulphitation gas supply in a wide range of plant productivity; stability of the hydroaerodynamic regime of the system «treated liquid – sulphitation gas» inside the sulphitator; sufficient contact time for complete dissolution in the treated liquid of the sulfur anhydride contained in the sulphitation gas. The advantages of the developed centrifugal-jet sulfitators in comparison with typical liquid-jet sulfitators are noted: ensuring the operation range of 50-120% of the nominal capacity (plant production capacity); significant reduction in the technical sulfur consumption for the sulphur anhydride production, which is used as a reagent for the sulfitation treatment of liquids in beet sugar processing; reduction of harmful emissions into the atmosphere due to 100 % sulfur anhydride dissolution in the treated liquid.

Quality of technological limestone quality as an important aspect of the efficiency of sugar beet factories

The authors studied 252 samples of limestone mined in 2014-2020 on the territory of 5 fields located in 2 regions of the Central Federal District of the Russian Federation. Limestone quality was assessed by the content of calcium carbonate and associated impurities. According to the results of the assessment, a number of deposits were formed in decreasing limestone quality. The highest quality was noted at the East-Bernikovskoe deposit (Tula region), containing on average 95.3% of calcium carbonate. Through the example of 10 beet sugar factories located in 5 regions of the Central Federal District, the influence of the quality of limestone on its consumption in sugar production was assessed. The authors studied the data on the consumption of limestone of the considered deposits at sugar beet factories, which was used in the period from 2014 to 2020. According to the results, a number of deposits were determined to increase the consumption of limestone in the production of sugar, which coincided with a number in terms of decreasing quality. A lower consumption of limestone was noted at beet sugar factories that used limestone from the East-Bernikovskoe (in average 3.81% during the studied period). Therefore, the choice of limestone of a certain deposit for the use in sugar production is a factor in enhancement of operating efficiency of beet sugar factories.

Influence of exopolysaccharides on viscosity of sugar juices with low sucrose contents

The presence of dextran originating from frost-damaged or degraded beet is highly detrimental during beet sugar manufacture, because they cause difficulties in filtering the carbonatation juice. In this paper the impact of exopolysaccharides on the viscosity of low sucrose content juices including: raw juice, juice after the 1st filtration and thin juice were analyzed. Studies have shown that high molecular mass exopolysaccharides have a stronger effect on the juice viscosity than low molecular mass exopolysaccharides. However, the dynamic viscosity of technical sugar solutions (raw juice or thin juice) with exopolysaccharides at a content of up to 0.5 g/kg, is lower than the viscosity of pure sugar solutions having the same refractometric dry substance content (RDS).

The beet sugar factory of the future

The beet sugar industry is facing several challenges for the future. The climate change is requiring a transition from the traditional fossil fuel to a greenhouse gas neutral energy source. The available possibilities for this purpose will be outlined in this paper. The recent EU sugar market reform has markedly increased the competition between sugar companies and the resulting lower sugar price has a significant impact on the profit margin of sugar production. In order to keep up with these challenges it is key to make an appropriate use of the available opportunities to improve the cost-efficiency of sugar beet processing. The different means to advance the sugar business are better asset utilization, continuous process improvement, introducing innovative process technologies and further developing a sugar factory into a biorefinery with a further valorisation of (co-)products and wherein synergy is obtained between different on-site process operations. Why and how these different available tools can improve the competitiveness of sugar factories will be discussed in detail. A proper combination and choice of the suggested changes and opportunities will enable sugar factories to get prepared for the future.

Representatives of the sugar industry of the Russian Empire at the World's Fair in Paris in 1900

Nineteenth-century world exhibitions were platforms to demonstrate technical and technological changes that witnessed the modernization and industrialization of the world. World exhibitions have contributed to the promotion of new inventions and the popularization of already known, as well as the emergence of art objects of world importance. One of the most important world events at the turn of the century was the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. Participation in the World's Fair was not the first experience of this kind of activity for sugar growers in the Russian Empire. Most of them were members of the Kyiv branch of the Russian Technical Society, which in turn took the most active part in the work of blighty and international industrial exhibitions, receiving high awards. The main sugar enterprises were concentrated on the territory of modern Ukraine in the possession of several large companies owned by Tereshchenko, Kharitonenko, Khanenko, Brodskyi, Simirenko, Yakhnenko and others. The Russian sugar industry occupied a prominent place at the World's Fair in Paris in 1900, as its share in world sugar production was 17%, and the area of beet crops, it was ahead of all other countries (in 1900 sugar beets were sown 548,796 hectares). The exposition testified to this powerful development of the industry. At the World's Fair in 1900, Russia's sugar industry was housed in the Palace of Agriculture and was represented in the pavilions by well-known sugar firms, such as the Department of Land (Timashiv Beet Sugar and Refinery), I. H. Kharitonenko and his son; brothers Lazar and Lev Izrailevich Brodskyi; O. N. Tereshchenko, heirs of F. A. Tereshchenko; the Tereshchenko brothers, the Botkin brothers (Novo-Tavolzhanskyi sugar factory); joint-stock companies of sugar and refineries: “Constance”, “Germanov”, “Gmina Lyshowiche”; E. A. Balasheva (Mariinskyi Sugar Plant of Kyiv Province), H. H. Balakhovski (Mariinskyi beet-sugar and refineries of the Kursk province). A characteristic feature of the sugar industry was that they mainly represented family businesses based on strong family ties, ethno-cultural and religious values. In addition, they intertwined the functions of owners and managers. Thus, the author tries to analyze the participation of representatives of the sugar industry in the World's Fair in 1900 and define the role of exhibitions as indicators of economic development, to show the importance and influence of private entrepreneurs, especially from Ukraine, on the sugar industry and international contacts.

Identification of the microbiota in sugar extraction juices by sequencing-based techniques

The importance of microorganisms in the beet sugar industry came up in 1930. Since then, several approaches have been made to describe these bacteria. For this purpose, mainly cultivation-based methods were applied. However, the majority of the microorganisms cannot be cultivated or are in the viable-but-non-culturable state. In addition, these methods are time-consuming and costly. Progress in molecular biology allows a cheaper, faster and more precise identification of the microbiota. This study evaluates the application of an 16S rDNA-based metagenomic sequencing approach based on Illumina MiSeq technology to identify the microbiota in raw juice and juice of mid-tower in a beet sugar production plant and compares the results with those obtained by cultivation-based techniques. All bacteria orders detected with cultivation-based methods could be also found with the applied metagenomic approach. In raw juice, mainly mesophilic bacteria such as Lactobacillus spp. and Leuconostoc spp. species were identified. Additionally, a partly large proportion of gram-negative bacteria belonging to the order Enterobacterales were detected by the metagenomic approach. The diversity in juice of mid-tower was much lower and predominated by mainly thermophilic genera such as Geobacillus, Caldanaerobius and Thermoanaerobacter. The last two mentioned genera belong to the class of Clostridia. Surprisingly, in the juice of mid-tower Lactobacillus species could be verified by cultivation-based methods as well as by the metagenomic approach. As a consequence, it can be presumed that lactobacilli can survive in this very specific environment at 70 °C occurring in the central part of the extraction tower.