Many modern people are used to drinking sweet tea and adding sweets to cakes, pastries, cereals. At the same time, some people think about how to make sugar, what is needed for this and how difficult it is. How is sugar made from beets and cane? In the production of this product on an industrial scale, complex equipment is indispensable, and at home everything can be done much easier. But such a process, of course, is very laborious. Few people are engaged in the production of sugar on their own, when it can be bought in a store. However, it's still worth a try. It is better to choose beetroot as a raw material, since cane is more expensive and difficult to prepare for extracting the right substances at home. Previously, special devices were used for these purposes, with the help of which it was possible to knead the raw material by passing the stems between the rollers. Cane is also less available than sugar beet.
How is beet sugar made? Experts assure that there are several ways to make a product of high quality. The simplest of them is drying. Wash the sugar beet, cut into thin circles and place in a clay pot or cast iron, and then add a little water and put in the oven to languish at a temperature of about 90 degrees for 40 minutes. The vegetable should become soft, but not boiled. In the old days, housewives stewed beets in a Russian oven. Next, the circles need to be removed from the pot and laid out on a baking sheet. You need to dry beets at a temperature of about 50 degrees. This process can take quite a long time. It can be accelerated by drying raw materials in a special electric dryer. In such a device, forced ventilation is provided. Its use allows you to save not only time, but also electricity, which is very important for most families.
Dried circles can be ground into flour and added to various dishes. If you need to sweeten tea, it is permissible to lower whole pieces of beets into the drink. The above method of making sugar is very popular among fans of natural food. How is sugar made from beets and beetroot syrup? It turns out that this is also possible at home. To begin with, the vegetables need to be washed and lowered into a deep saucepan, pour water. It is recommended to boil the beets for an hour, and then drain the water, cool the semi-finished product, peel it and cut it into thin strips, and then squeeze the juice. To do this, you can use gauze or a special press. The collected liquid must be drained into a saucepan and evaporated over low heat. If done correctly, the consistency of the syrup should resemble molasses. To harvest sugar for the future, you need to evaporate the syrup thoroughly so that it does not ferment during long-term storage.
How is beet sugar made without pre-boiling? To do this, peel the roots, cut into thin strips, place in a saucepan, pour boiling water, cover and let it brew for an hour. Only after that it will be possible to drain the water, squeeze the juice from the beets and proceed to evaporation. After the syrup becomes viscous and thick, you can pour it into jars, or make real sugar out of it. To do this, the product must be cooled sharply so that the crystallization process occurs. For these purposes, it is best to use special metal molds with partitions. The syrup must be poured into the cells of the molds, and then removed in a cold place. After crystallization, sugar should be knocked out and stored in pieces, or ground. For these purposes, you can use a coffee grinder or mortar. Some housewives prefer to make lump sugar and crush it just before use.
How is sugar made from beets using special tools? If you want or need to produce sugar yourself on a regular basis, it is best to purchase a special tank with a grate. This will save you time and effort. Such tanks are also equipped with faucets at the bottom of the tank. The rack is necessary so that the beets do not come into contact with the bottom of the pan. It is very easy to prepare syrup in such vats. You need to pour some water on the bottom. The liquid must reach the grate level. Plant materials should be put on a sieve and steamed for the allotted time. Next, you need to drain the liquid by opening the tap, pass the beets through the press and pour the juice into the tank. Evaporating liquid in such a large pot is very convenient. At the end of the process, you can drain the syrup through a tap directly into metal molds or special jars. Molds should only be used if crystallization is required.
Homemade beet sugar has certain disadvantages. In this case, there is no refining process and the product is obtained with specific odors. Not everyone likes when sugar smells like beets. It is quite difficult to get rid of such an aroma, but you can muffle it by adding a little citric acid to the syrup. Some housewives prefer to pass the liquid through a charcoal filter, and only then start evaporating. Charcoal cleaners are commercially available. If you plan to make sugar regularly, it makes sense to purchase a filter, or make it yourself. The refining process is quite complicated and it is simply impossible to perform it at home. That is why home-made sugar differs from commercially produced sugar not only in smell, but also in a rather dark shade.
Many people think that white sugar is made from sugar cane. However, 30% of the white sugar produced in the world is made from sugar beets. Sugarcane only grows in tropical climates, while the more frost-hardy sugar beet can be grown in colder regions and less fertile soils.
To get 1 kg of sugar, you need 7 sugar beet roots. Common processed products are molasses or molasses and beet pulp. Sugar beets are processed into various types of sugar. Inferior varieties are pre-treated to become white sugar.
Like many other crops, sugar beets are planted in the spring and harvested in the fall. Combine harvesters can process 6 rows at the same time. They pull the beets out of the ground, cut off the foliage and top, leaving only the bulbous root. These roots usually weigh about 900 g each and only 18% of this weight is sucrose or sugar.
The loader loads the harvested beets onto trucks. It has a sieve, with the help of which one third of the earth is removed during the loading process. When the trucks arrive at the sugar refinery, they unload the beets, as well as the remaining earth and stones, onto a conveyor belt that takes them to the washer.
First, they are sent to a rotating drum. Under water jets, the roots rub against each other and the earth falls off. The water stream carries the floating beets out of the drum. The stones sink to the bottom and are collected in separator buckets standing at the edges. A screw conveyor transfers the beets to a conveyor that takes them to a factory where sugar will be made from them.
In the factory, cutting machines cut the incoming beets into shavings or small strips. A conveyor conveys these chips to a large hot water tank where they soak for several minutes. Here the cell membranes of the beet begin to open, thereby preparing the next process - the extraction of sucrose. Beet chips are fed to the bottom of the 20-meter extractor tower. A shaft rotating inside this tower slowly lifts the chips up, and a stream of hot water flows down. As a result, sucrose is drawn out and sugar water, called raw juice, is formed.
The next step is to refine this raw juice. In a giant kiln, limestone is burned with coal and a complex chemical compound is formed - calcium hydroxide, also called lime milk, or slaked lime. It is added several times to the raw juice, and the shavings, from which the sucrose has already been extracted, are pressed and sold as livestock feed.
Carbon dioxide and juice mixture are added to lime milk. This absorbs one third of the impurities, which are then filtered out.
The untreated juice became a golden sugar solution and is now called clarified juice. This clarified juice is then subjected to a 6-step evaporation process that turns it into a thick syrup.
From here, the syrup enters the 4-phase crystallization system. During the first phase, the syrup is heated and seed crystals are added to it. These are obtained separately, using a complex process of cooling and evaporation, tiny sugar crystals. As the water in the juice evaporates, about half of the sucrose crystallizes around these seed crystals. A centrifugal separator then separates the crystals, called refined sugar, from the remaining syrup.
The syrup goes through this process three more times, each time producing a lower grade of sugar. At the plant, the two lowest grades dissolve and re-crystallize.
The two highest grades of sugar go to dryers. On the way there, they pass through a mechanical sieve that separates large crystals. They also dissolve and undergo a crystallization process. At the end, two varieties of beet sugar are obtained, which remain in the silo until the moment of packaging, in order to be sold as refined and white sugar. No, thanks. Personally, I'm so sweet.
There are many sweet tooths in the world, and such a product as sugar is practically indispensable in the preparation of various cakes, pastries, cookies and sweets. Many craftsmen try to make all the necessary ingredients at home in order to be sure of the naturalness of the product. You can also make your own sugar at home.
What is sugar?
Sugar is a food product that is obtained from cane or beets of special varieties. It is used in all industries related to the production of dessert delicacies. Also, sugar is used as a preservative and an additive in the preparation of semi-finished products and various products.
Despite a number of useful properties, excessive consumption of this product can lead to diseases. One of these is diabetes. The preparation of sugar is a labor-intensive process and is carried out mainly in large enterprises, but craftsmen make a small amount of a home-made product.
sugar industry
For the manufacture of the product in industrial conditions, varieties are used. Usually it is purchased from farmers in the fall, when it reaches the peak of maturity and gains enough of the necessary trace elements. Before starting the process, the raw material is viewed and the amount of sucrose contained is measured.
Next, the beets are washed and cut into small sticks in special machines. To isolate sugar from the product, cut pieces are passed through water, the temperature of which is 70 degrees. The resulting solution is purified and evaporated, resulting in molasses. It, in turn, is crystallized in a special apparatus and transferred to a centrifuge, where the grains are separated from the remnants of the thick syrup.
The output is wet sugar, which still needs to be dried. Then it is packed in bags and sent to the warehouse.
Raw material
To make homemade sugar, you need to prepare raw materials. In the regions of Russia and European countries, it is easiest to get it. When buying, it is necessary to inspect the root crop, it must be clean, without rot and deep damage. The beets are cleaned of apical residual leaves and washed thoroughly.
In warm tropical countries, sugar is the same common product as in Russia and Europe. It is obtained from cane, which is also grown on an industrial scale.
Cooking at home
In its usual state, sugar is sand or refined cubes. A sweet product can obtain such a structure only under industrial conditions, when the crystallization process takes place in special machines. Sugar, cooked at home, most of all resembles molasses or thick syrup. It can be added to tea or in the manufacture of any confectionery.
For the process, it is necessary to prepare two enameled pans, several pieces of gauze and a press. As the latter, you can use any container in which you can collect water for weight.
First way
Washed and peeled beets are placed in a pot of boiling water. It takes about 1 hour to cook the root crop. After this period, the water is drained and the beets are allowed to cool. After that, the peel is thinly removed, and all the pulp is thinly sliced. The finished product is placed in a gauze fabric, folded several times, and placed in a container under the press. The resulting juice is poured into a separate bowl.
After a while, the remaining cake is again placed in a saucepan and poured with water. The volume of liquid should be half the volume of beets. The water must be warm. So the grated root should be insisted for 45 minutes, after which it should be thrown into a colander, over a container where the juice is collected.
Place the beets again in gauze and send under the press. The newly separated liquid is mixed with the already obtained one and filtered. Further, as in large production, it is necessary to evaporate excess moisture. To do this, put a pot of juice on the fire and evaporate to a thick syrup. This sugar recipe at home is the most common and simple.
Second way
Beets must be washed and peeled from the top skin. Next, the fruits are placed in a pressure cooker. There, the root crop under a pressure of 1.5 atmospheres should languish for about 60-80 minutes. After the beets have cooled, they must be crushed and placed in gauze under a press.
As a result, the resulting liquid is filtered and put on evaporation. The process continues until the liquid acquires the consistency of honey. Such sugar can be poured into sterilized jars and rolled up for the winter. Use it like a regular product, adding it to teas and various foods when cooking.
Properties
Sugar is the so-called sucrose, which is found in many vegetables and fruits. In small doses, this product has a beneficial effect on the human body, stimulating blood circulation in the brain and spinal cord. But do not forget that excessive consumption of sweets, such as cakes, sweets, chocolate and the like, can lead to diseases.
It is a very profitable business. Raw materials for sugar production can be from sugar cane, palm sap, starchy rice, millet or beets. How is beet sugar made?
The production of granulated sugar is a technological process consisting of several steps:
- collection and transportation of beets to production;
- purification of raw materials from dirt and metal objects;
- making shavings from beets;
- obtaining and purification of diffusion juice;
- evaporation of juice to a state of syrup;
- processing of syrup into a crystalline mass - massecuite I;
- obtaining crystalline sugar and molasses from massecuite I;
- evaporation of molasses into massecuite II, its separation into molasses and yellow sugar;
- purification of yellow sugar;
- granulated sugar packaging.
Equipment for sugar production
The production of sugar from sugar beet includes various operations, reminiscent of the technological process in a processing plant.
Equipment for the sugar industry at the preparatory stage includes:
- beet lifters;
- hydraulic conveyor;
- traps for haulm, sand and stones;
- water separators;
- washing machines for root crops.
Equipment for the production of sugar of the main technological operations are numerous:
- magnetic separators for catching accidentally caught metal objects;
- conveyor with scales;
- bunkers with trough systems;
- beet cutters centrifugal, disk or drum;
- screw diffusion apparatus;
- Press;
- pulp dryers;
- defekator with stirrer;
- heated mechanical filter;
- saturator;
- sulfitator;
- vacuum filter;
- centrifuge;
- evaporator with concentrator.
For the finishing operations of sugar production, the following devices are needed:
- vibration conveyor;
- sieve with vibrator;
- dryer with cooler.
Preparatory stage of production
The harvested beet is sent to the heap fields - intermediate storage areas for beets, from where it is sent by hydro transport to the processing plant. The equipment is sloping all the way to the plant, with traps installed on it for large debris, including haulm, sand and stones. And also magnetic separators are installed so that metal objects do not get into the technological process.
At the plant, the final washing of raw materials takes place, followed by treatment with a solution of bleach - 150 gr. per 1 ton of beets. Water is used cold (up to 18 ° C) to prevent the loss of sucrose from the fruit. Root crops by a belt conveyor, on which they are blown with air to remove moisture, are weighed and sent to collection bins.
sugar factory
From the bunkers, the beets are directed by a system of chutes to beet cutters to obtain chips 5–6 mm long and about 1 mm thick. Thinner than 0.5 mm and shorter than 5 mm is a defect, which should not exceed 3% in chips.
Beet chips after weighing are sent to a screw diffusion plant for desugaring with hot water. The result is pulp and diffusion juice containing about 15% sugar, 2% "non-sugars" and up to 3 g/l of pulp. The juice is filtered from the pulp and, with the help of lime, is cleaned of sediment (salts of acids, proteins and pectin). This process takes place in two stages - pre-defecation (lasts up to 5 minutes) and defecation (10 minutes).
In order to clear the defecated juice from lime, it is sent to the first saturation. In the saturator, it is treated with carbon dioxide. Lime passes into calcium carbonate and precipitates together with non-sugars. Saturated juice is freed from sediment using mechanical filters. Since the color of the diffusion juice is still dark, it is sent for sulfitation - treatment with sulfur dioxide.
The clarified diffusion juice is evaporated to a syrup state with a moisture content of 35%. Beet syrup is again subjected to sulfitation to a pH of 8.2 and a dry content of more than 90%, filtered and sent to vacuum filters.
The massecuite of the first crystallization is obtained from beet syrup. Massecuite I after the mixer is subjected to centrifugation with separation into crystalline sugar and the so-called green molasses. The sugar is washed and steamed to obtain granulated sugar with a purity of 99.75%.
The molasses is returned to filtration at high temperature to obtain a second crystallization of yellow sugar and molasses from the massecuite. Brown sugar can be used in the food industry or steamed to produce white sugar.
During steaming, white molasses or a second runoff is formed, which is returned to the technological chain at the time of boiling the massecuite of the first crystallization. Sugar is poured over with heated air to dry to a moisture content of 0.14%, packaged and sent to the warehouse. Molasses is used as fodder molasses.
Zero waste production
The technology for the production of sugar from sugar beet allows the use of products of operations with a low content of saccharides. Molasses is a good feed additive and many products can be made from it:
- alcohol;
- lemon acid;
- yeast.
Beet pulp is also widely used as animal feed. The content of solids in it is up to 6%.
To improve the possibility of transportation and increase the nutritional value, the pulp is dried to 80% moisture. If they plan to store it for a long time, then they dry it with flue gases to a water content of 10%.
Production of refined sugar
For the manufacture of refined sugar, granulated sugar is used with a dry matter content of 99.85%, non-sugar impurities of not more than 0.25% and a color of 1.8. Syrup with a sugar content of 73% is made from granulated sugar in an autoclave. The syrup is filtered and purified from dyes with the repetition of stages.
For adsorption, activated carbon AGS-4 or powdered coal is used. Then the sweet solution is sent for thickening in vacuum plants, crystallized in centrifuges.
The resulting crystals are treated with clearers and ultramarine and sent to carousel presses. As a result, briquettes are obtained, which are dried and cut into pieces.
Video: Production of sugar from sugar beets
Beets have been known to people for a long time - the first mention of this vegetable crop dates back to the second millennium BC. Since then, breeders have bred many of its varieties. Among them there are leafy forms, for example - chard, the majority are root crops.
Root forms of beets are divided into food and fodder. The current one appeared precisely from fodder varieties. It happened quite late - in the XVIII century.
Modern varieties and hybrids of sugar beets contain up to 18% sugar. The best of them are Crystal, Manege, Nesvizh, etc. How exactly sugar is extracted from them - we will tell further.
Technology and equipment at the sugar factory
We will briefly describe how sugar is produced on the basis of the root crop at special factories (you can learn about how sugar beet is used and what is obtained during its processing). Production at the plant takes place in several technological stages.
- Preparatory stage (cleaning and washing line). In beets brought directly from the field or from storage, stones, splinters, pieces of metal can be caught. This is dangerous for the equipment. The beets may just be dirty.
In order to avoid loss of sugar during washing, the water temperature is controlled - it should not exceed 18 degrees. After washing, the beets are rinsed with chlorinated water - at the rate of 10-15 kg of bleach per 100 tons of beets. Then the beets are fed to the conveyor. There it is blown with a strong jet of air. This removes the remaining water and adhering light impurities.
Equipment:
- hydraulic conveyors (simultaneously with the supply, the beets are washed from dirt);
- sand traps, stone traps, top traps;
- water separators;
- washing machines.
- Grinding. How is it made? The prepared sugar beet is weighed and fed into the storage hopper. From here, under its own weight, it goes for grinding to centrifugal, drum or disk beet cutters. The width of the resulting chips is in the range of 4-6, and the thickness is 1.2-1.5 millimeters.
Equipment:
- conveyor with magnetic separator;
- beet cutter;
- scales;
- Diffusion. In diffusion plants, the main process takes place - the washing out of sugar from the crushed material. The chips are treated with hot water and give sugar and other soluble substances into the solution. This process occurs at a temperature of about 70-80 degrees in a slightly acidic environment.
An environment rich in sugars is a fertile environment for the development of microorganisms. This leads to damage to the product, and to more dangerous consequences - for example, possible explosions. Therefore, during the diffusion process, formalin solution is periodically added to the apparatus.
Its final concentration is low - 0.02% of the total mass of the product, but sufficient to suppress the active microflora. The product that is obtained at this stage is diffusion juice. It is a turbid liquid that quickly darkens in air. It contains a large amount of pulp.
The pulp is separated on mezgolovushki. The second product is beet pulp. It is pressed and either sent directly to livestock feed or dried.
Equipment:
- diffusion installation (screw or rotary);
- pulp dryer
- Diffusion Juice Purification. Juice, which is obtained after diffusion, is a complex mixture of many soluble organic substances of the most diverse nature. To clean the juice from these impurities, a defecation process is carried out.
The process with this unappetizing name is carried out in two stages. It boils down to the treatment of juice with lime (milk of lime). The reaction of the solution in this case reaches pH values of 12.2 - 12.4, that is, the solution becomes alkaline.
In this case, organic acids are neutralized, proteins precipitate. Other unwanted impurities also react. The reaction products either precipitate immediately or are removed at the next stage, the saturation stage. The term "saturation" refers to the well-known process of "carbonation", that is, saturation of the solution with carbon dioxide. In this case, a finely dispersed suspension of calcium carbonate (ordinary chalk) is formed, which absorbs coloring impurities.
The solution is then filtered and re-saturated. Before this, if necessary, repeated defecation is sometimes carried out. Next, the resulting clear, but still colored solution is treated with sulfur dioxide (sulfur dioxide). This process is called sulfitation. In this case, the alkaline reaction of the solution decreases and its discoloration occurs. The viscosity of the syrup also decreases.
Equipment:
- defecation apparatus;
- filter with heating device;
- saturator;
- sulfitator;
- sump.
- Thickening and crystallization. The juice obtained after sulfitation is the usual unsaturated solution of sucrose. If the solution is thickened to a saturated state, then, as is known from the school physics course, the process of crystallization will begin in it.
The resulting crystals will begin to precipitate. This is what happens in vacuum machines. There, the solution, previously evaporated to a state close to saturated, begins to boil at reduced pressure, and thickens to a supersaturated state. The process of mass crystallization begins.
The precipitated sugar crystals are separated in centrifuges and carried out through several more stages of final processing. There they lighten up and turn into the familiar, well-known, granulated sugar.
Equipment:
The yield of sugar from 1 ton of root crops after processing is approximately 100-150 kg. The spread of indicators depends not least on agricultural technology and weather conditions in the current year (read more about where beets grow, what climate and soil it “loves”, read).
The factory indicator of production efficiency is the sugar recovery ratio. It shows the ratio of the mass of sucrose in the finished product (granulated sugar) to the mass of sucrose in the feedstock. Usually it is about 80%.
How to get the product at home?
Let's say right away that it is unlikely that it will be possible to cook the usual refined sugar at home. But sugar syrup is easy to make. It will be a real natural product made by hand. The most uncomplicated equipment is suitable for this.
Would need:
- arbitrary amount ;
- enameled dishes (pots, basins);
- meat grinder, knife, wooden spatula;
- gauze or other filter cloth.
How homemade sugar is made:
- Sort the beets, clean from the roots and damaged areas. Do not remove the skin!
- Rinse.
- As a whole, put in a pot of boiling water and cook for an hour.
- Drain the water. Allow to cool slightly and remove the skin from the warm beets.
- Grind with a meat grinder or a knife, which is preferable. The cut plates should be no thicker than 1 mm.
- Place the crushed beets in a canvas bag and lay under the press. Substitute a basin for flowing juice. If there is no press, you can also squeeze the juice manually, twisting the bag, as when squeezing clothes.
- After the first pressing, pour the pulp with hot water (not boiling water) in a volume approximately equal to half the volume of the beets, let stand. Throw the beets on a sieve, let the liquid drain into a basin with the previously squeezed juice. Squeeze thicker again in the same place.
- The resulting juice is heated to 70-80 degrees and filtered through double gauze.
- Evaporate the filtered juice on the stove to the desired density. In this case, it is desirable to use wide and flat, enameled or tinned dishes.
- Properly prepared syrup has the consistency of liquid honey. It is stored, like honey, for a very long time.
The syrup obtained during evaporation must be constantly stirred with a wooden spatula - it burns easily.
About 1 kg of syrup is obtained from 5 kilograms of sugar beets., or, in terms of 600 grams of pure sugar.
Getting solid sugar
The syrup must be carefully boiled down in the same way that sugar is boiled down to make homemade candies. Pour boiled syrup into flat metal molds. Put in a cold place. There, the syrup cools quickly and crystallizes. Then it remains only to remove it from the mold and chop it into pieces of the desired size.
Useful video
We offer you to watch a video on how sugar is extracted from beets:
