Sugar Technology

Beet and Cane Sugar Manufacture

by Peter van der Poel, Hubert Schiweck, Tom Schwartz

The handbook presents the state-of-the-art of beet and cane sugar manufacture. The parameters influencing the economic value and the possible uses of the main product, sugar, as well as the by-products, pulp, bagasse and molasses, have been given special attention. The functional properties of sucrose in foods are discussed in detail.

Because beet and cane sugar manufacturing are in many ways complementary, the book encompasses both beet and cane as raw materials. Based on the chemical and physical properties of sucrose and the composition of sugar beet and sugar cane the individual process steps of sugar manufacture are described.
This handbook therefore has the following objectives:

  • to provide a tool for factory managements in day-to-day decisions
  • to help management in long-term planning
  • to focus on practical aspects

 

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Sugar Technology - Beet and Cane Sugar Manufacture

About the Editors

Dr. Pieter Willem van der Poel

Dr. Pieter van der Poel was born in Barendrecht in the Southern Netherlands. He studied at the Delft Technical University, where he obtained a Master’s degree in chemical engineering in 1957 and his PhD in 1958 with a thesis on sugar extraction at low temperatures. At that time he worked as assistant to Professor Watermann in Delft. In 1958, he began his career as a research chemist at CSM Suiker B.V. in  Amsterdam. In 1966, he became Head of the CSM Central Laboratory, the Managing Director of which he became in 1983. In 1994, he retired from the Directorship of CSM’s Central Laboratory and he worked for the following two years on this book.

The topics of Dr. van der Poel’s research work have been actual problems in sugar manufacture such as the technological value of sugarbeet, the development of seed magma systems for the improvement of sugar quality and the fate of the nonsugars on their way from thick juice to white sugar. He also developed the concept of cation and anion balances in juice purification.

The results of his research work have been published in 37 papers in national and international journals as well as through international conferences. Dr. van der Poel is a member of several national and international organizations. From 1983 to 1995 he was a Vice-President of the CITS and President of the CITS subcommittee “Measurement and Process Control”.

Dr. van der Poel is well known throughout the sugar world for his outstanding contributions, his openness and understanding towards other scientists. The industry has been indeed fortunate in having a technologist of Dr. van der Poel’s skill.

Professor Dr. Hubert Schiweck

Professor Dr. Hubert Schiweck was born in Prostken, East Prussia (now Poland). After the 2nd World War he moved first to Demmin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and then started his studies in chemistry and sugar technology at the Humboldt University in Berlin (at that time East Germany). He obtained his Diploma degree in 1953 and his PhD in 1957 with a thesis on carbohydrate chemistry at the Institute for Agricultural Chemistry, Prof. L. Reichel. During the last years of his studies he served as an Assistant and Senior Assistant Instructor in the Sugar Institute at the Humboldt University. In 1958, he moved to West Germany and began his career at the Central Laboratory of Südzucker AG in Obrigheim, the Director of which he became in 1967. Under his guidance, the Central Laboratory was extensively enlarged from a staff of 15 up to 85 in 1992. In the last two years – until he retired in 1994 – he worked with a small group on special topics, e.g. the development of a new concept of the determination of the technical quality of beet.

His many papers and patents on sugar manufacture covered the whole range from beet reception to sugar storage and advice to customers, with his main interests being in the in the chemical aspects of the process. In addition to being a sugar technologist, Professor Schiweck’s other main interest was the chemistry of carbohydrates. He was the inventor and initiator of the development of Isomalt (Palatinit®), the most successful product made from sugar in the 1990s.

Since 1984 he has lectured at the Stuttgart-Hohenheim University on Food Technology and he was made an Honorary Professor in 1996. He was, until 1995, Vice-President of the CITS and is a member of many national and international organizations. Professor Schiweck has been one of the most renowned sugar technologists in the second half of this century.

Thomas K. Schwartz

Thomas K. Schwartz was raised on a sugarbeet farm in Wyoming. He holds his Masters Degree from the University of Wyoming. He began his career as a faculty member at the University of Wyoming in 1978. In 1981, he joined the Field Development Group of Union Carbide Agricultural Products Company. In this position, Mr. Schwartz was responsible for development functions on herbicides and insecticides in field crops in the Western United States, this including sugarbeet. From 1986 to 1988, Mr. Schwartz contracted with various United States government agencies on agricultural development in Northern Africa. He worked in Sudan, Somalia and Morocco.In 1988, Mr. Schwartz joined the Beet Sugar Development Foundation as Manager. In 1990, he was named Executive Vice President, the position he currently holds. Mr. Schwartz also acts as Executive Vice President of the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists. From 1994–1996, Mr. Schwartz served on the Secretary of Agriculture’s Joint Council of Science and Education. He has authored and presented technical papers throughout his career. Mr. Schwartz serves as Managing Editor for the Journal of Sugar Beet Research.Mr. Schwartz is a member of the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists (ASSBT), the International Institute for Beet Research (IIRB), Sugar Industry Technologists (SIT), the Western Society of Weed Science (WSWS), and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).