Technology for the production of granulated sugar from sugar beets. Sugar business: production of granulated sugar. Technology and equipment for sugar production

Sugar production technology is a multi-level chain, which consists of several stages:

Washing and cleaning of raw materials from impurities;
- obtaining sugar beet shavings;
- production of diffusion juice and its purification;
- obtaining syrup;
- isolation from sugar syrup;
- processing of sugar mass into granulated sugar;
- packaging and storage of the finished product.

Washing and cleaning

With impurities in it, they make up to 12% of the total mass, and in addition to the earth and tops, the impurities may contain stones and even some metal objects. All this must be separated from the useful part of the fruit. To wash beets, a drum washer and a water separator equipped with traps for impurities are used. Properly performed washing will avoid damage to subsequent equipment for the production of sugar.

Production of sugar from sugar beet - obtaining sugar beet shavings

In accordance with the technology of sugar production, in order to produce syrup, beets must be crushed. Shredding of beets is the process of turning them into shavings on beet cutters, which, with the help of diffusion knives mounted on frames, cut the fruits into small pieces. Chip thickness of 1 mm is the optimal thickness for further processing.

Inside the body of the beet cutter, the fruits rotate with the help of a snail, which, under the action of centrifugal force, presses the fruits against the cutting edge of the knives. In the process of sliding along the fixed knives, the beets turn into shavings, which, passing between the knives, fall into a container for further processing. Of all sugar production equipment, beet cutters require the most difficult cleaning with compressed air, and the periodic replacement of knives.

Production of diffusion juice

The process of extracting sucrose from beets using sugar production technology is quite primitive - beet chips are soaked in hot water in industrial diffusers, which softens its fibers and releases juice. If you use cold water, then the protein compounds in the cells of the chips will significantly slow down the process of obtaining juice.

Usually several diffusers are used in series to produce more concentrated juice. For further processing, diffusion juice must be cleaned of beet chips that have become useless. A mixture of juice and chips is placed in pulp traps, where filtration takes place.

Diffusion juice, even purified from fruit residues, remains a complex multicomponent composition, which, in addition to sugar, also contains protein, pectin, amino acids, and so on. With the help of vacuum filters and saturators, the process of cleaning sugar syrup from impurities is carried out.

Separation of sugar from syrup

The sugar syrup obtained after purification of the juice contains too much water (up to 75%), which is removed in the evaporator, obtaining a syrup containing up to 70% solids. After that, according to the technology of sugar production, using a vacuum apparatus, the syrup is thickened to a solids content of 93.5%, obtaining a massecuite, which, after undergoing the crystallization process, will become ordinary sugar.

Sugar crystallization is the final stage of the technological process of sugar production

The massecuite obtained from vacuum machines is sent to a centrifuge, where it crystallizes, after which it is dried with hot air and sent through a vibrating conveyor to a drying-cooling plant, after which it is sorted using a vibrating screen.

Despite the rather long technological chain, most of the equipment for the production of sugar has a fairly simple principle of operation. The simple principle of operation of individual devices facilitates both maintenance and repair of all types of necessary equipment, which makes it possible to produce sugar on an industrial scale at a fairly low cost.

Making sugar from sugar beets at home

Different ways of making beet sugar at home from scratch: from preparing raw materials to making syrup. Recipes of natural Russian products for a healthy lifestyle are now available to everyone.

Beet sugar: from the depths of history to today

It so happened historically that sugar made from cane was most widely used. Such a product was very expensive, because the main territories where the plantations were grown were far beyond the boundaries of civilized Europe and wild Russia, and, therefore, the costs associated with transportation played a significant part in the cost of the sweet substance. Perhaps the only alternative was honey. However, already in the 16th century, thanks to the scientific research of Andreas Sigismund Markgraf and a certain French botanist Achard, another method of extracting sugar from sugar beets became known to the world. By its properties, sugar obtained in this way not only makes it possible to widely use it by the population, but also has a number of advantages over its cane counterpart, namely: it has a lower calorie content and contains the maximum amount of micro and macro elements, since it does not require refining.

industrial production

In Russia, beet sugar has become more widespread due to the above reasons.

The factory receives raw materials - beets. Thoroughly washed in a special washing shop and cut into uniform chips. At the next stage, this mass is fed into tanks, where it is filled with hot water. Under the action of water, the sugar and some other substances contained in it are separated from the chips, which, when oxidized, give the juice a dark brown color. To get the most out of the raw material, water leaching is carried out several times. Production waste - repeatedly soaked chips are sent to feed livestock.

At the next stage, the resulting juice is purified from impurities, first heated to 80 ° C - this allows you to get rid of protein substances, and then processed in sealed tanks with milk of lime, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Undesirable impurities at this stage precipitate, which remains in the tanks after the subsequent evaporation of the juice. Evaporation allows you to get a sweet syrup, which is then filtered and thickened in special containers. The output is granulated sugar with molasses, which is then separated from sugar crystals in centrifuges.

Beet sugar has a darker color than cane sugar, so it is washed with water at the end and dried.

Getting sugar from beets at home

You can now replace store-bought sugar with real Russian products: refined beetroot and sweet syrup.

Beetroot refined

Rinse and peel the beets. Then cut it into thin rings and place in a clay pot. Immerse the container in the oven to steam, while avoiding burning our workpiece. From time to time look into the pot - the beets should become soft. Then pour the beetroot circles onto a baking sheet and place back in the oven. Now the beets should dry out. For longer storage and improvement of the general properties of our beets, then it is better to lightly fry the dried rings in a pan. Just a little - it will also slightly improve the smell.

For consumption, you just have to grind these slices into flour, so they can be used to replace store-bought sugar in cooking.

For tea, you need to roll these whole slices in flour a little and fry in butter. Tasty and healthy.

Getting syrup: the first way

Remove the roots and heads and rinse the beetroot without peeling off the skin. Place the washed root crops in dense rows in a saucepan with already boiling water. Follow the fire. Beets should be boiled in boiling water. After 1 hour, remove the root vegetables from the pan, wait for them to cool and remove the peel.

Cut the beets into thin slices no thicker than 1 mm. Place it crushed in this way under a press to obtain juice, after wrapping it in a clean canvas bag. Place the squeezed mass back into the pan, pour hot water at the rate of half the volume of root crops. This blank is for the second spin. Let it stand for half an hour, and then strain the liquid into the bowl where the juice was collected from the first extraction. Put the evaporated cake back into the canvas bag and repeat the pressing. Heat the collected juice to 70-80 ° C, and then strain through gauze folded several times.

The last step is evaporation. The juice must be evaporated until it is completely thickened in a low enameled basin or other flat vessel.

Getting syrup: the second way

Prepare, as in the first method, the beets for cooking, now removing a thin layer of skin. It is necessary to steam in an autoclave for about an hour maintaining a pressure of 1.5 atm. If there is no autoclave, you can use the boiler, which should have a grate at the bottom, but it will take more time.

Having received a soft beet, it is crushed and passed through a press twice. Strained juice is then evaporated, as in the first method.

Store the syrup in a cool place, protected from direct sunlight, like any preservation.

In baking cooking, the proportion of syrup to flour is approximately 0.75-1:1. For making jam, the ratio of syrup to berries by weight is 2:1.

I happened to visit a sugar factory, where I got acquainted with the process of making a product familiar to everyone - sugar.
Actually, it all starts with the entrance, where guests are first greeted by a gilded V.I. Lenin, somehow hinting with his gesture: “Comrade, look! Sweet there, for God's sake!
And most importantly, don't cheat. Sugar is really there, in commercial quantities.

Everyone knows that sugar cane does not grow in our country and sugar has to be extracted from beets, this not at all glamorous root crop.

Cars heavily loaded with beet are driven to the acceptance point

Weigh and then unload the contents of bodies and trailers into the bunker

It should be noted that the entire production process is automated, as evidenced by the presence of a variety of panels and consoles at all key points in the technological chain.

From the bunker, the root crops fall on the conveyor belt, which carries the raw materials into the dungeon.

It is clear that before using the beets, you need to clean it from the ground, tops, adhering stones, sand and other impurities - all this cannot get into the finished product in any case, but it is easy to ruin the equipment. To do this, the beet, following the path of supply to the production, passes through various straw traps, stone traps, sand traps. For the final cleaning of beets from contamination, root crops pass through a beet washer.

The whole process is controlled by the operator. On the monitor on the right is a diagram of the processes taking place at the cleaning and washing area, which displays operational information. The monitor on the left displays a video from a camera installed above the belt conveyor, through which the washed raw materials go to the next section.

And here is the same conveyor that the camera is looking at. Clean root crops are sent to the beet cutter.

Beet roots are fed into the beet cutter hopper and carried inside the housing, where under the influence of centrifugal force they are pressed against the cutting edge of the knives, sliding along which the beet is gradually cut into beet shavings. It is problematic to observe the process itself, but the knives look like this:

The "sugar recoverability" depends very much on the quality of the chips. It should be of a certain thickness, with a smooth, crack-free surface.

The chips obtained at the previous stage are sent along the belt conveyor to the diffusion apparatus.
Inside the diffusion column there is a screw (such a thing as in a meat grinder), with the help of which the chips move at a certain speed from the bottom up. Opposite to the movement, water continuously flows through the column of chips from top to bottom. Passing through the crushed raw materials, the water dissolves the sugar in the beet chips and becomes saturated with it. The whole process takes place without air access and at a certain temperature. As a result of the process, juice saturated with sugar accumulates at the bottom of the column, and pulp (sugar-free beet chips) is unloaded from the upper part of the apparatus.

Freshly squeezed pulp enters the pulp dryer. This is a huge, continuously rotating drum, inside which the pulp is dried in a stream of hot gas.

Dried beet pulp granules are picked up by the air flow of a pneumatic conveyor and carried away through pipes to a warehouse for subsequent sale - the “squeezed out” beet cut is fed to livestock.

The juice obtained in the process of diffusion, in addition to the sucrose we need (that is, sugar), contains many different substances, united by the term “non-sugar”. All non-sugars, to a greater or lesser extent, interfere with the production of crystalline sugar and increase the loss of a useful product. And the next technological challenge is the removal of non-sugars from sugar solutions. Why use various physical and chemical processes.

The juice is mixed with milk of lime, heated, and the precipitate is precipitated. Predefinition, defecation (that's right, I didn't misheard and didn't make a seal - in Russian it's just cleansing), saturation and many other interesting terms. At one of the stages, the juice is filtered in such installations

Along the perimeter of the filtration apparatus one can see glass flasks through which the purified juice is driven.

The resulting juice is thickened by evaporation. The resulting syrup is boiled until it crystallizes. "Cooking" sugar is the most important operation in the preparation of a sweet product. In the photo - our guide and chief technologist at the control point of the boiling section

Before us is the heart of production - vacuum devices for boiling syrup. "Cooking" takes place in a rarefied atmosphere, due to which the syrup boils at 70 degrees Celsius. At higher temperatures, the sugar will simply burn. How it happens in a frying pan :) The control panel is visible on the left. At one point, one of them yelled a siren and turned on a red flasher, signaling the need for human intervention in the automated process. Immediately one of the workers appeared and the console fell silent with satisfaction.

The device can be "milked" a little and visually check the quality of the syrup.

The syrup on the glass slide crystallizes before our eyes. It's practically sugar!

Boiled syrup - massecuite, sent for centrifugation

In the centrifuge, all excess is separated from the massecuite and goes into a special collection under the installation. And on the walls of the drum there are crystals of granulated sugar. The following photos were taken within one minute and clearly show a trace of sugar.

Unloaded from centrifuges, wet granulated sugar is transported for drying

Drying plant. The drum is spinning. Sugar inside the drum is blown with hot air (more than 100 degrees).

After drying, the sugar is cooled to room temperature with continuous mixing in the same plant. At this time, you can get to it from the end and open a secret hatch!

The dryer drum rotates and the sugar is poured, cooling.

It's time to taste the finished product! Sweet!

Dried and cooled granulated sugar is fed to the sieving machine. The photo does not convey movement, but the whole structure sways like a sieve in the hands of a grandmother :)

At the end of the sieving, the sugar is sent for packing.

Unfortunately, at the packing station, I was asked not to shoot. Filming was allowed only after the end of the work shift and the stop of the conveyor.

The photo shows semi-automatic packing bins, next to which packers sit on benches. A bag is taken from the stack, put on the neck of the hopper, the dispenser pours 50 kg into the bag. After that, the conveyor belt shifts, the neck of the bag enters the “sewing machine”, which sews the bag and then the sewn bag goes to the warehouse along the conveyor belt.

The company also has an automatic packaging line, it is almost the same, only there are no packers. All the action takes place in a translucent tunnel, in fact, you can only see how the machine picks up a bag from a stack, puts it on the bell of the bunker, loads a portion of granulated sugar, then sews it up and sends it to the finished product. For some reason, there were no photos of the process. Apparently he was hypnotized by self-propelled bags :)

That's all.

p.s. The production is very noisy, I did not catch much of what was said. So if I was not accurate in describing the technology and processes, do not blame me.

Sugar is a food product consisting of high purity sucrose.

Sucrose has a pleasant sweet taste. In aqueous solutions, its sweetness is felt at a concentration of about 0.4%. Solutions containing more than 30% sucrose are sugary-sweet. The energy value of 100 g of sugar is 1565-1569 kJ (374 kcal).

Sucrose is quickly and easily absorbed. In the body, under the action of enzymes, it is broken down into glucose and fructose. Sucrose is used by the human body as an energy source and material for the formation of glycogen, fat, protein-carbon compounds.

The raw material for the production of sugar is sugar cane, which grows in areas with a tropical and subtropical climate, and sugar beet (about 45%). Sorghum, corn, and palm are also used to produce sugar. The domestic industry produces two types of sugar from sugar beets: granulated sugar and refined sugar.

Commercial sugar should consist almost entirely of sucrose. Free impurities are not allowed, but during the production of non-sugars they can be adsorbed inside the sucrose crystals and on their surface in the form of a thin film. In addition, minerals (Na, K, Ca, Fe) are present in all types of sugar - about 0.006%.

Granulated sugar is a free-flowing product consisting of sucrose crystals. It is obtained from the spindle-shaped, white-colored roots of sugar beets.

The main stages of the production of granulated sugar

The beets are washed, crushed into shavings (into narrow thin plates) and processed in diffusion drums with hot water. The transition of sugar and soluble non-sugars from beets to water is due to diffusion. Diffusion juice is purified from mechanical impurities and non-sugars and treated with milk of lime (aqueous suspension of calcium oxide) to neutralize acids, precipitate aluminum, magnesium, iron salts and coagulate proteins and dyes (defecation).

To precipitate excess lime in the form of finely crystalline calcium carbonate, on the surface of which non-sugars are adsorbed, the juice is treated with carbon dioxide (saturation). At the next stage, the juice is thickened by evaporation, followed by the crystallization of sugar from the syrup - the formation of massecuite and the separation of sugar crystals from the intercrystalline liquid (green molasses). The sugar crystals are washed with water and separated from the intercrystalline liquid (white molasses); at the last stage, drying, cooling and liberation of crystals from ferromagnetic impurities and sugar lumps are carried out.

Commodity is obtained only by boiling the massecuite of the 1st crystallization.

White and green molasses, obtained by centrifuging the massecuite of the 1st crystallization, are fed to the boiling of the massecuite of the 2nd crystallization. When centrifuging the massecuite of the 2nd crystallization, two runoffs (white and green molasses) and sugar of the 2nd crystallization are also obtained. It retains a film of intercrystalline solution on its surface, therefore it is colored intensely yellow.

To boil the massecuite of the 3rd crystallization, the second and the first outflows of the massecuite of the 2nd crystallization are used. The resulting sugar of the 3rd crystallization, along with the sugar of the 2nd crystallization, is used to boil the massecuite of the 1st crystallization. The runoff taken during the centrifugation of the massecuite of the 3rd crystallization is called molasses, it is a waste product.

Quality granulated sugar is determined according to GOST 21-94. From organoleptic indicators evaluate: taste and smell - sweet, without foreign tastes and odors, both dry sugar and its solutions; flowability - without lumps, free-flowing, intended for industrial processing, may have lumps that fall apart when lightly pressed; color commercial granulated sugar - white, for industrial processing - white with a yellowish tinge; the purity of the solution- sugar solution is transparent or slightly opalescent, without insoluble sediment, mechanical or other impurities.

By physical and chemical indicators(in terms of dry matter) granulated sugar must meet the following requirements (in%): mass fraction sucrose - not less than 99.75, for industrial processing - not less than 99.65; mass fraction reducing substances - no more than 0.050, for industrial processing - no more than 0.065; mass fraction ash - no more than 0.04, for industrial processing - no more than 0.05; mass fraction moisture - not more than 0.14, for industrial processing - 0.15; mass fraction ferroimpurities - no more than 0.0003; chromaticity(in arbitrary units of optical density) - no more than 0.8, for industrial processing - no more than 1.5.

Most common defects granulated sugar - moisture, loss of flowability, the presence of non-crushing lumps are the result of storage at high relative humidity and sudden changes in air temperature. An uncharacteristic yellowish or grayish color and the presence of lumps of unbleached sugar appear when the technology is violated. Extraneous taste and smell are formed when packing in new bags treated with an emulsion with the smell of petroleum products, as well as when the product neighborhood is not observed; foreign impurities (scale, pile and fire) are the result of poor cleaning of sugar on electromagnets and the use of poorly processed burlap for packaging bags.

Rafinated sugar- a product consisting of crystalline, additionally purified (refined) sucrose, produced in the form of pieces and crystals. The purpose of refining granulated sugar or raw cane sugar is to, as a result of the sequential execution of technological operations, remove impurities as much as possible and obtain practically pure sucrose. According to the current standard, the content of impurities in refined sugar is not more than 0.1%. Refining is the separation of sucrose from non-sugars by its crystallization in solutions.

The main stages of the production of refined sugar. Sugar is dissolved in water. The resulting syrup is purified using adsorbents (active carbons) and ion exchangers that absorb dyes from the syrup.

In refinery production, several crystallization cycles are carried out. Refined sugar is obtained in the first two or three cycles, in the next three or four cycles, yellow sugar is obtained from molasses, which is returned for processing. Refined molasses is removed from the last cycle as a waste product.

To reduce the inversion of sucrose, a slightly alkaline reaction of sugar solutions is maintained, and a blue dye, ultramarine, is used to mask the yellow tint of refined sugar. It is added as a suspension to a refined massecuite or when washing sugar crystals in centrifuges.

Refined sugar is produced in the following range:

• pressed chopped in bulk in bags, packs and boxes;
• pressed instant in packs and boxes;
• pressed in small packing;
• refined granulated sugar in bulk in bags and packages;
• refined granulated sugar in small packaging;
• sucrose for champagne;
• refined powder in bulk in bags and packages.

Lumpy pressed refined sugar is produced in the form of separate pieces having the shape of a parallelepiped. The thickness of a piece of pressed crushed refined sugar can be 11 and 22 mm. Deviations from the thickness at the place of splitting of pieces are allowed ± 3 mm.

Refined granulated sugar produce with the following crystal sizes (in mm): from 0.2 to 0.8 - small; from 0.5 to 1.2 - medium; from 1.0 to 2.5 - large.

Sucrose for champagne produced in the form of crystals ranging in size from 1.0 to 2.5 mm.

Pressed refined sugar It is obtained by removing the isutfel molasses on centrifuges and washing the crystals with clers (a pure solution of refined sugar). Wet crystals form refined porridge. Their faces are covered with a thin film of sugar solution. Pieces of refined sugar or bars are formed from the porridge on the presses, which are split into pieces after drying.

The strength of the resulting refined sugar depends on the moisture content of the porridge, which is regulated by the amount of clairs remaining in it. Humidity of porridge to obtain instant refined sugar should be 1.6-1.8%, pressed chopped - 1.8-2.3%. Refined sugar bars have a capillary-porous structure, which contributes to their drying. Removal of moisture during the drying process causes additional crystallization of sucrose, which was dissolved in it. The more clears is in a bar or a piece of pressed refined sugar (hence, dissolved sucrose), the more firmly it connects the crystals into a conglomerate and the refined sugar is stronger.

Quality refined sugar is evaluated according to GOST 22-94. According to organoleptic indicators, refined sugar must meet the following requirements: taste and smell - sweet, without foreign taste and smell of both dry sugar and its aqueous solution; color- white, clean, without impurities, a bluish tint is allowed; flowability - refined granulated sugar free-flowing, without lumps; the purity of the solution - sugar solution is transparent or slightly opalescent, a subtle opalescent shade is allowed.

Defects refined sugar: a grayish tint, dark blotches, etc. - the result of insufficient clarification of syrups, clogging of porridge, non-compliance with pressing and drying modes.

The food industry is always the most resistant to competitive changes in the market, since the demand for products in this area is stable. There are several highly profitable industries. One of them is the production of granulated sugar. It can be considered a promising and profitable type of business.

About sugar production

Sugar production is a fairly large branch of the food industry. It has about 320 enterprises. They specialize in the production of products, which are divided into granulated sugar and refined sugar.

As a rule, sugar-sand factories are located near sugar beet sowing areas and operate seasonally. The production of granulated sugar at modern enterprises is quite large-scale. Thus, large and well-equipped plants can process up to 6,000 tons of beets.

Sugar-refinery production involves the production of lump refined sugar or refined granulated sugar. Such plants are located in large cities and can operate all year round.

Features of sugar

Both refined sugar and granulated sugar are high-quality food products that are characterized by a sweet taste. In addition, it is almost pure sucrose. It can be easily and completely absorbed by the body, allowing you to quickly restore lost energy.

It is a disaccharide, which, under the influence of enzymes, breaks down into glucose and fructose. In addition, sucrose is easily soluble in water and forms supersaturated solutions. As the temperature rises, its solubility increases.

Sucrose can be in a crystalline or amorphous state. If we talk about the chemical structure, then sugar is a weak polybasic acid, which, when reacted with alkali or alkaline earth metals, gives compounds called "saccharates".

It should be noted that due to fructose, invert sugar is hygroscopic, therefore it slows down the hardening of bread, prevents the process of candied jam, and also prevents marshmallows, marmalade, fudge or other confectionery from drying out.

Analysis of the sugar market

The production of granulated sugar always remains promising, since sugar has been and will remain a commodity of prime necessity. It is always in stable demand, which does not pass.

It should be noted that the sugar business is characterized by rapid growth. This is due to the reconstruction of factories and an increase in their production capabilities. In addition, one can notice a positive trend in the consumption of sugar by the population.

So, if you indicate statistical data, then a person consumes about 20 kg of this product per year, not counting the amount that is included in other delicacies. And although doctors do not recommend eating a lot of sweets, believing that this negatively affects health, the overall functioning of the body and can lead to diabetes, the demand for sugar is not reduced. That is why a high-quality business plan for a sugar factory is a good opportunity to organize a well-thought-out production and get a good profit.

Features of drawing up a business plan for a sugar factory

From a technological point of view, the production of granulated sugar is a complex and labor-intensive business that requires expensive equipment, significant financial costs, as well as a large number of professional workers. In order to competently enter the sugar industry and succeed in it, you need to clearly find out all the features of this business. For this, they draw up a business plan for a sugar factory.

This is an extremely important document that can determine the future of the enterprise. It is with the help of it that they find out the profitability of the plant, its ability to receive investments and be in demand, as well as the level to which it will be possible to increase production. Errors in the calculation are unacceptable, since the opening of such an enterprise requires significant investments.

The volume of risks depends on the cost of equipment, the lease of premises that will be used as warehouses, as well as the costs of launching the production itself. What matters is the purchase of the necessary raw materials, obtaining various permits, as well as wages.

Key Points in a Sugar Mill Business Plan

To open a new sugar production, you need to make calculations depending on the market situation and the characteristics of the workflow. It should be noted that the business plan is made up for at least 3 years and is constantly updated. It is recommended to collect the following information:

• General information about the project and the sugar market. It is necessary to determine the relevance and prospects for opening a plant. Analysis of the market, demand and competitive environment, profitability assumptions are also of great importance.
• Definition of mission and strategy. For production to be successful, it is necessary to formulate a mission, which is the social idea of ​​the future company, as well as a strategy - an action plan that will help achieve the goals.
• Clarification of the list of all necessary documents.
• Financial part. All expenses and planned profit should be determined.
• Technological line for the production of sugar.
• Sales strategy for finished products.
• Personnel policy.

Raw materials for the sugar business

The raw materials used to make sugar are:

• sugar cane, which is most actively used by enterprises in Brazil, Cuba and India;
• sugar beet - the production of beet sugar is widespread in the USA, Russia, Germany and France;
• palm sap - used in Southeast Asia;
• starched rice - malt sugar produced in Japan;
• sorghum stalks - sugar from this raw material is made in China; it should be noted that it does not have competitive advantages when compared with beetroot or cane.

If you specify the types of sugar according to the method of manufacture, then raw sugar is isolated. These are individual crystals composed of sucrose. There is also powdered sugar. These are finely ground sugar crystals. As a rule, powdered sugar is used in the confectionery industry. The main type can be called granulated sugar. It is sucrose crystals, the dimensions of which are approximately 2.5 mm. If a product is made from a very pure substance, then they talk about refined sugar.

Features of beet roots

Sugar beet is an important ingredient in the production of sugar. It is a biennial plant that is drought tolerant. In the first year, root crops with a powerful root system are grown. The following year, new rosettes of leaves appear, as well as stems with flowers and seeds.

It should be noted that in the production of sugar only root crops of the first year of development are used. They are fleshy and highly compacted sections of the root system, have a cylindrical shape. The mass of the root crop is an average of 200 grams. Its pulp consists of microscopic cells that perform various functions. The outer tissue is protective, called the periderm. The main tissue is the parenchyma, which accumulates beet juice in its cells. It is rich in sucrose and other substances in dissolved form.

It should be noted the peculiarity of the structure of beet parenchymal cells. They have a shell, which consists of fiber. Its walls have a semi-permeable protoplasm with proteins and surround the vacuole containing beet juice. They do not let dissolved substances out of it, therefore, in order to extract sugar from beet cells, it is necessary to heat the protoplasm to a temperature at which its proteins coagulate.

Features of the chemical composition of beets

The quality and quantity of products obtained by special processing of sugar beet depends on its chemical composition. The ratio of various components, in turn, depends on the seeds that are used in cultivation, as well as on climatic conditions.

Generally speaking, sugar beet contains 75% water, the rest is dry matter. If we recalculate for 75 kg of water, then 3 kg hold colloids, and 72 kg act as a solvent with 17.5 kg of sucrose and 2.5 kg of non-sugar compounds. There is an important indicator - the purity of beet juice. This is the percentage of sucrose content and the amount of dry matter.

As a rule, the first number (this indicator is sometimes also called sugar content) ranges from 15-22%. This means that the average sucrose content in beets is 17.5%.

If you specify the content of solids in the finished product, then their share in granulated sugar is 99.75%, and in refined sugar even more - 99.9%.

Production stages

The production of granulated sugar is a peculiar process, which is characterized by the following stages or steps:

• supply of sugar beet, its cleaning from various impurities;
• obtaining sugar chips and diffuse juice from it;
• purification of the resulting liquid;
• thickening juice by evaporation;
• cooking massecuite and obtaining sugar in the form of small crystals;
• drying and cooling of granulated sugar with its subsequent storage.

Thus, the process of producing sugar from beets includes washing and cleaning, weighing and cutting into chips, which are placed in a special diffuser. Here sugar is extracted from the plant mass using hot water. At the same time, diffusion juice with sucrose is obtained, as well as pulp. This is beet chips after the extraction stage, which can be used for the production of animal feed. Next, there are stages that make it possible to purify the diffusion juice and obtain sugar crystals.

How are sugar crystals obtained?

After the diffusion juice is obtained, it is mixed with lime in a saturator. Next, the resulting solution is heated and carbon dioxide is passed through it.

As a result, filtration takes place, during which a "purified" juice is obtained. Sometimes ion exchange resins are used at this stage.

Then such a “purified” juice is evaporated, obtaining a syrup containing 65% sugar, and crystallization is also carried out in special vacuum apparatus at 75 ° C. In this case, the massecuite of the first crystallization is obtained.

It is a mixture of sucrose and molasses, which enters the mixer, massecuite distributor and centrifuge. The sugar crystals that remain in the last device are bleached and acted upon with steam, resulting in the usual crystal sugar.

It should be noted that the production of sugar from cane is characterized by a similar technological process. The difference is the absence of an extraction stage (the cane is simply squeezed out), as well as the method of purification of the resulting juice (it is treated with a much smaller amount of lime).

Equipment for the production of sugar from beets

To establish the production of sugar, you need to purchase a set of specialized equipment. With it, you can prepare the beets for the further technological process.

This set of equipment includes:

• sugar lifting plant;
• hydraulic conveyor;
• sand, haulm and stone trap;
• water separator;
• beetroot washing machine.

In terms of sugar production equipment, the main machine line includes the following:

• conveyor equipped with a magnetic separator;
• beet cutter;
• scales;
• diffuse installation;
• screw press;
• drying for pulp.

In addition, in the production of sugar, filters, heating devices, saturators and sulfinators, as well as sedimentation tanks, defecation devices are used. The equipment that is considered the most energy-intensive is the vacuum apparatus, centrifuges and evaporators with concentrators. If maximum automation of production is required, then a vibrating container, a vibrating screen, as well as a cooling-drying unit should be purchased.

Features of the purchase of equipment for the sugar business

Sugar production equipment can be purchased in several ways. You can make an independent layout from different machines (including non-specialized ones), buy a line of devices or an entire plant that has already been in use, purchase a ready-made sugar production business or completely new devices. The first option is the most economical, but can only be used by people who are perfectly versed in technology.

A significant advantage of the purchase of an inactive sugar factory is the developed infrastructure and the developed network of suppliers. But one should also remember about a serious minus - it can have worn-out equipment and be simply unsuitable for profitable production.

If you buy a new ready-made sugar factory, then you should carefully weigh everything, because the costs are rather big. Attention should be paid to the quality of the equipment, since the previous owner could depreciate it heavily even after several years of operation. For an optimal assessment of the technical condition of the machines, it is better to consult with a specialist.

It is difficult to open a sugar factory on your own due to too high material costs.

Features of the organization of sugar production

The best option is to organize a business that provides for the establishment of production with a focus on a small city or even a separate urban region.

At the same time, a mini-factory for the production of sugar from beets can become an integral part of a profitable business. Subsequently, it can be expanded, reaching a higher level and increasing the volume of production and sales.

It should be noted that the production of sugar is almost all automated, if you do not take into account the harvesting and primary processing of root crops. That is why the issue of recruitment of staff is not a paramount task.

The most important thing in this business is high-quality equipment, which would be characterized by durability and reliability, as well as a high level of production capabilities.

In addition, it must be remembered that when planning a sugar factory, one should take into account not only investments and income from the sale of the main product, but also profit from the sale of waste generated during the production process.

Given all the features of the sugar business, good earnings are guaranteed.