Sucrose production from sugar beet

Sucrose is produced in a high state of purity on an enormous scale—more than 80 million tons per year. About 40% of the world s sucrose production comes from sugar beets and 60% comes from sugarcane. A comparison of the sweetness of common sugars and artificial sweeteners relative to sucrose is given in Table 15.1. Honey, which is a mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, has been used for centuries as a natural sweetener for foods and is sweeter than sucrose, or cane sugar (Table 15.1). To convert cane... 

Introduction. Separation processes for gas-liquid and liquid-liquid systems have been treated in this and previous chapters. Also, the separation process ofleaching was discussed for a solid-liquid system. Crystallization is also a solid-liquid separation process in which mass transfer occurs of a solute from the liquid solution to a pure solid crystalline phase. An important example is in the production of sucrose from sugar beet, where the sucrose is crystallized out from an aqueous solution. 

In the production of sucrose from sugar beets (cf. 19.1.4.1.2), the enzymatic preparation from Mortiella vinacea hydrolyzes raffinose and, thus, improves the yield of granular sugar in the crystallization step. Raffinose in amounts >8% effectively prevents crystallization of sucrose. 

Production of sucrose from sugar beet, where the sucrose is crystallized out from an aqueous solution. 

The sucrose in cane sugar is identical to that in beet sugar both white refined products are 99.9% sucrose, with water as the principal nonsucrose component. Trace components from the plant indicate the origin of the sugar. 

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