sugar beets

sugar beets

Sugar beets are harvested in the autumn and early winter by digging them out of the ground. Sugar beet are usually transported to the factory by large trucks because the transport distances involved are greater than in the cane industry. This is a direct result of sugar beet being a rotational crop which requires nearly 4 times the land area of the equivalent cane crop which is grown in mono-culture. Because the sugar beet has come from the ground it is much dirtier than sugar cane and has to be thoroughly washed and separated from any remaining beet leaves, stones and other trash material before processing.

Sugar beet extraction processing starts by slicing the beets into thin chips. This process increases the surface area of the sugar beet to make it easier to extract the sugar. The extraction takes place in a diffuser where the sugar beet is kept in contact with hot water for about an hour. Diffusion is the process by which the colour and flavour of tea comes out of the tea leaves in a teapot but a typical diffuser weighs several hundred tons when full of sugar beet and extraction water. The diffuser is a large horizontal or vertical agitated tank in which the sugar beets slices slowly work their way from one end to the other and the water is moved in the opposite direction. This is called counter-current flow and as the water goes it becomes a stronger and stronger sugar solution usually called juice. Of course it also collects a lot of other chemicals from the flesh of the sugar beet.