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The sugar production processing out of beets is fairly enough complicated, for a simplified production flow-chart click here
Beets are carried over from a range up to 70 klm around the factory and rarely from a longer distance (road transport). A small percentage is carried by rail from beets collecting centres (railway transport) and rarely from longer distances. Weighing up is carried out of the gross weight of the vehicle and in the event is taken a sample of beets for designating the sugar content of each load Determination of foreign matters (earth, stones, tops e.t.c.) is done by estimation.
The vehicle is weighed again at the exit from the factory along with the returned soils (tare). Payment is made by tracing back to the clean load, namely, after removing the percentage of foreign matters, depending upon the sugar content. The beets are stored in outdoor silos in heaps up to 11m approx. in height and are promoted according to the needs of the factory by means of water flowing through the channels toward the beets washer where they are washed out. After washing, the beets are cut into thin bits in the slicing machines.
We name diffusion the process consisting in receiving the sugar contained in the bits. This process is based on the principle of osmosis. With a reversed route of hot water and bits, the sugar contained in them enters progressively into water. The type of diffusion used in the H.S.I. factories is the inclined bucket (DDS) with a double propeling helix in the 4 factories and the tower with horizontal scalder (BUCKAU) in Larisa. The bits are introduced at one end, while the hot water, which circulates in counter- flow, is gradually becoming enriched with their sugar. The sugared juice is collected at one edge, while the diffused bits called pulp are recovered at the other edge and are used after a compression and possible drying as cattle feed (wet pulp, dry pulp, pellets).
The sugared juice derived from diffusion contains12-13% sugar, -85% foreign meterials called non-sugars. A portion of these foreign materials removes into the next stage called juice purification and is composed of the following partial processes: Pre-liming, liming I saturation I filtration II saturation II filtration, safety filtration. In pre-liming, an addition is made of lime milk into the sugared juice, whereat is deposited a part of the foreign matters, while sugar forms a solution of sugar lime.
Industrial production |