Economic purification of raw sugar in beet sugar factories*

The refining of raw sugar in existing beet sugar factories after the regular campaign has become more popular to increase the white sugar output. Even the processing of a mixture of both raw cane sugar syrup and beet juice during the regular beet sugar campaign or afterwards with stored thick juice has already being practiced. Whereas the sugar house equipment can be used with almost no changes, the juice purification and the filtration need to be customized. The carbonatation principle is also applicable for the purification of the cane sugar syrup. The filtration can be performed in conventional two steps or as direct PKF (filter press) filtration eliminating the thickening filters. The paper presents different possibilities for improved and economical raw cane sugar syrup purification (carbonatation and filtration) by using already existing equipment in combination with new technology.