Beet Sugar Plants

De Smet Engineers & Contractors’ expertise in beet sugar starts at the beets reception yard, including feedstock analysis, storage, handling, washing and slicing before sugar extraction of the juice by diffusion.

DSEC plays an important role in the definition of the most appropriate type of diffuser and also selects the best available technology to be applied for juice purification – with or without decalcification – as well as in the selection of units such as milk of lime preparation and anhydrous carbonic gas production.

Further to diffusion, the juice is filtered and concentrated into syrup in a multiple effects evaporation installation.  This syrup is then treated in the crystallisation unit that generates sugar and allows eliminating remaining impurities in the molasses.  DSEC’s simulation model is of paramount importance at this stage to define the most efficient energy set-up as well as to size any single equipment of the line.  DSEC dedicates particular care to sugar drying, cooling, maturation and storage operations that are critical for subsequent packing and commercialisation of finished products.

DSEC also provides solutions for the use of the fibrous residue of the diffusion (pulp) that presents a considerable nutritive value that is worth commercialising after pressing and possibly drying for the production of pellets.  Low temperature pulp dryers can be foreseen in order to decrease the plant overall energy consumption by using low energetic fluids recovered from the process.