Sugar-beet - Import export

Sugar beet is a more versatile crop than sugar cane since it can tolerate a wide range of soil and climatic conditions. As for sugar cane, beet molasses is generated in large volumes from the sucrose recovery operation.

De Smet Engineers & Contractors’ expertise in beet sugar starts at the beets reception yard, including feedstock analysis, storage, handling, washing and slicing before Sugar extraction of the juice by diffusion. DSEC pays particular attention to agronomic specificities, climatic and local environmental aspects so as to optimize the installation performances. DSEC plays an important role in the definition of the most appropriate type of diffuser, often preceded by a prescalder (juice-cossettes heat exchanger) and also selects the best available technology to be applied for juice purification - with or without decalcification - as well as the selection of units such as milk of lime preparation and anhydrous carbonic gas production. Further to diffusion, the juice has to be filtered and processed into syrup in a multiple effects evaporation installation. This syrup is then treated in the crystallization unit that generates sugar and allows concentrating the remaining impurities in the molasses. DSEC’s simulation program is of paramount importance at this stage so as to define the most efficient energy set-up as well as to precisely size any single equipment of the line.

Cane sugar is produced by means of technologies rather similar to those used in a beet sugar plant that are also fully mastered by DSEC. Sugar cane is however a totally different plant compared to sugar beet: whereas sugar beet is sowed and can be harvested after +/- 6 months, cane takes longer to grow but grows back after it has been cut and can therefore be harvested several consecutive years (4 to 6) before being replanted. Cane can be cut either manually or mechanically before being directly processed in the mill. Cane plantation location in relation of the plant is of paramount importance so as to reduce sugar losses by the degradation of the plant after cutting as well as to minimize logistic costs. DSEC will select the most appropriate methodology for extracting the juice from the cane after its first shredding. The extraction operation will be performed using mill tandem or cane diffusion while additional mills will press the residual solid (bagasse) in order to increase its fiber content while additional mills will press the residual solid (bagasse) in order to increase its fiber content. Pressed bagasse will be used as fuel for the plant combined heat and power generation that will generally export electricity on the public grid. The choice between mill tandem and diffuser will be highly dependent on plant capacity, cane characteristics, expected extraction performances and plant general concept.

Thanks to its deep knowledge of all unitary operations related to edible oil, sugar and sugar fermentation processes, De Smet Engineers & Contractors is the ideal partner for assisting investors in developing and implementing biochemical production plants and bio-commodities production facilities. DSEC has already successfully built for international key players a betain and several inulin plants based on their proprietary knowhow. Moreover, DSEC’s experience in implementing cogeneration units built along with facilities for the production of fermentable grade sugar (derived from sugar beet, cane and grains) allows the company to fine-tune the overall process set-up in order to achieve ideal conditions with regard to material and energy flows. Notable examples of bio-based chemicals include non food starch, cellulose fibers and cellulose derivates, tall oils, fatty acids and fermentation products such as ethanol and citric acid for which. DSEC is fully qualified to provide the facility that will efficiently generate the required feedstock on an industrial scale. From a technical point of view, almost all industrial materials respectively their building blocks made from fossil resources can be substituted by their bio-based counterparts: • C2 building blocks: ethanol, acetic acid • C3 building blocks: lactic acid, 3-hydroxypropanoic acid, glycerol • C4 building blocks: fumaric acid, succinic acid, butyric acid, 1-butanol • C5 building blocks: itaconic acid, furfural • C6 building blocks: citric acid, glucaric acid, 5-HMF, adipic acid

DSEC's commitment on the construction of Bioethanol plants is based on a very specialized technical knowledge of the Ethanol production processes; in this article you will find a more detailed understanding about the Upstream process. In Europe and the US, the existing traditional 1" generation bioethanol plants typically process cereals (maize/corn, wheat, rye, ...) and other starch or sugar containing raw materials (e.g. sugar beet). The raw material initially undergoes crushing (milling for cereals) to reduce the particle size distribution to such a degree that the enzymes enter in contact with the starch molecules in the subsequent steps. During liquefaction with alpha-amylase, starch is dismantled into low molecular sugar units, the so-called dextrines. In the next process step, saccharification, these dextrines are further dismantled into fermentable sugars by means of gluco-amylase. In the fermentation process, these fermentable sugars are partly aerobically transformed, but mainly anaerobically by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) into biomass and ethanol; sugar containing raw material as e.g. sugar cane can be directly fed into fermentation after crushing. Upstream process groups: - Storage - Cleaning - Milling / Crushing - Mashing - Liquefaction - Saccharification - Fermentation (batch or continuous)