Considerations on the optimal processing capacity of beet sugar factories

The economic situation of the European sugar industry is currently very tense. The expected introduction of a climate-neutral mode of operation by 2050 will require considerable investment in the coming decades. This will further strengthen the cost advantages of the cane sugar industry, which, in contrast to the beet sugar industry, has for many years been obtaining most of its energy requirements from the renewable fuel bagasse. In order to remain competitive with the cane sugar industry, further reductions in production costs are necessary. As it is hardly possible to increase efficiency through technological improvements, the most promising measures to reduce production costs will be to further increase the processing capacity of the individual factories and possibly extend the campaign. Using a simplified mathematical model, the influence of transport costs, labour costs and constant costs on the optimal capacity of beet sugar factories is investigated. The lowest production costs for white sugar are used as an optimality criterion.


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Language: English
Authors: Rudolf Schick

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