Volume 62, Number 1, February 2025

The April 2020 Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, 140 S. Ct. 1462 (Maui Decision) held that a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit is required “when there is a direct discharge from a point source into navigable waters or when there is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge.” Specifically, the Maui decision determined that underground injection wells at a wastewater treatment plant on the Island of Maui, Hawaii, which discharged wastewater to groundwater that travels to the Pacific Ocean, needed an NPDES permit because the discharge is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge of pollutants to a water of the United States (WOTUS) (Pacific Ocean). In November 2023, the EPA released draft guidance to provide additional permitting considerations and direction for the implementation of the Maui decision in the NPDES permit program. The EPA’s draft guidance applies to point source discharges that reach a WOTUS via groundwater or other subsurface flow. EPA held a comment period for the draft guidance in November and December 2023. EPA’s next action to publish final guidance is expected at any time. Prior to the Maui decision, case law was divided on whether the Clean Water Act governs discharges into groundwater that is hydrologically connected to a WOTUS. The Maui decision was the first decision at the SCOTUS level to clarify that the scope of the NPDES permitting program includes some discharges through groundwater to surface waters. The Maui decision and forthcoming final guidance document will affect facilities that have potential functional equivalent discharges. Sugar beet facilities with discharges to groundwater from features such as unlined ponds, spray fields, or land application sites may need to conduct functional equivalent evaluations. This presentation will provide a brief regulatory background behind the Maui Decision, discuss the draft guidance (or final guidance, if this is released by the time of the presentation), potential implications to sugar beet facilities, and NPDES permitting precedence to date for the functional equivalent issue.

Microbes are introduced into processing streams from infected beets, piles, and soils, creating operational challenges and overall sugar losses. Contaminating bacteria consume sucrose while producing exopolysaccharides (EPS), like dextrans and fructans, resulting in potentially increased viscosities and associated difficulties with sugar recovery and crystallization. In this study, a set of ~50 bacterial strains from juices and biofilms representing some common genera among isolates were grown in high sucrose-containing medium. Culture broth viscosities were measured using a Brookfield model DV-II+ viscometer with a UL spindle and small sample adapter. A smaller set of samples were grown in the presence of (A) an oxidizing antimicrobial agent, (B) a dextranase enzyme, and (C) an antimicrobial and dextranase concurrently. These samples were measured for viscosity and optical density (OD). In total, 37 flask cultures were classified as watery, 7 flask cultures were classified as intermediate, and 10 flask cultures were classified as highly viscous. The juice and biofilm isolate culture samples had similar absolute numbers of watery and intermediate class samples (juice, watery: n=18; juice, int.: n=4; biofilm, watery: n=19; biofilm, int.: n=3). However, the biofilm-derived isolates had roughly double the number of viscous cultures compared to juice (juice, viscous: n=3; biofilm, viscous: n=7). These results seem consistent with observations that that EPS from biofilm isolates may result in higher viscosities than EPS from juice (planktonic) isolates. Finally, there seemed to be a correlation between increased viscosity and observations of mucoid colony morphology on beet juice agar during the microbial isolations. For experiments on the effect of processing aids, results show that untreated controls of bacterial cultures had high culture viscosity and OD, with treated bacterial cultures being lower. Application of dextranase as a treatment alone resulted in somewhat elevated OD and viscosity values for resulting culture solutions. The antimicrobial treatment was more effective at inhibiting microbial growth; however, the lowest OD and viscosities resulted from the concurrent application of both enzyme and biocide together. This provides evidence to support the hypothesis that EPS mitigation strategies may introduce synergistic microbial control when antimicrobial agents are applied. The results show that there is a wide variety among processing bacteria for propensity to form EPS and elevated viscosities. Through the application of treatments like dextranases, bacteria present during processing may have less opportunity to form EPS and biofilms. As a result, this could predispose dextran-forming bacteria to control measures, like the application of antimicrobial agents. Overall, this strategy may improve operational efficiencies by decreasing required volumes/costs for processing aids and increasing sugar production.

The Billings Factory is the only remaining Western Sugar Cooperative (WSC) factory with coal boilers. WSC is looking at technologies to replace these boilers with reduced carbon emissions technologies. These include higher pressure natural gas boilers with steam turbine electrical generation capability for the base load steam production. This will be supplemented with photovoltaic electrical (PV) generation coupled with a thermal battery to allow for steam and electrical generation 24 hours/day. The PV system would be used to generate electricity year-round with surplus being sold to the grid when the factory is not operating. The thermal battery would allow for dispatching electrical energy from PV during peak usage utilizing the steam turbine generator set. In combination with steam conservation projects, the overall carbon footprint will be reduced by 50-75% at the completion of this project. The PV/Thermal Battery system is modular so further reductions in carbon emissions are available with additional spending. A Phase I study partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Magaldi Technologies, LLC is underway. This paper will discuss the technology and findings of this study.

The April 2020 Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, 140 S. Ct. 1462 (Maui Decision) held that a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit is required “when there is a direct discharge from a point source into navigable waters or when there is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge.” Specifically, the Maui decision determined that underground injection wells at a wastewater treatment plant on the Island of Maui, Hawaii, which discharged wastewater to groundwater that travels to the Pacific Ocean, needed an NPDES permit because the discharge is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge of pollutants to a water of the United States (WOTUS) (Pacific Ocean). In November 2023, the EPA released draft guidance to provide additional permitting considerations and direction for the implementation of the Maui decision in the NPDES permit program. The EPA’s draft guidance applies to point source discharges that reach a WOTUS via groundwater or other subsurface flow. EPA held a comment period for the draft guidance in November and December 2023. EPA’s next action to publish final guidance is expected at any time. Prior to the Maui decision, case law was divided on whether the Clean Water Act governs discharges into groundwater that is hydrologically connected to a WOTUS. The Maui decision was the first decision at the SCOTUS level to clarify that the scope of the NPDES permitting program includes some discharges through groundwater to surface waters. The Maui decision and forthcoming final guidance document will affect facilities that have potential functional equivalent discharges. Sugar beet facilities with discharges to groundwater from features such as unlined ponds, spray fields, or land application sites may need to conduct functional equivalent evaluations. This presentation will provide a brief regulatory background behind the Maui Decision, discuss the draft guidance (or final guidance, if this is released by the time of the presentation), potential implications to sugar beet facilities, and NPDES permitting precedence to date for the functional equivalent issue.

Sugar beet mills who dry their pulp in order to pelletize, can save significant energy consumption by increasing the dry substance of the pulp during the pressing stage of the process. This can be achieved by using maximum open area, duplex material, drilled screens with a developed profile specific to this application along with optimum gap between screw flight tip and the screens.  An eight year’s study of Beet Press performance at Sud Zucker demonstrates the benefits. ANDRITZ Designs, Manufactures and installs drilled screens and provides maintenance of screw flights.

Western Sugar Cooperative in Scottsbluff, NE recently installed two new Babcock and Wilcox shop assembled package natural gas boilers. The boilers are a model FM120-136 water tube design capable of providing 225,000 pounds per hour each of 600⁰F steam at 400 psig. The reasons for the installation include: unreliable and aged coal boilers, environmental regulatory requirements, and lessening of personnel load. Howden MONO AFA 6 single blade turbine coupled with a 7MW TDPS generator was installed and commissioned the following year. Westinghouse 5MW AC turbine generator had failed two years prior. This paper aims to provide lessons learned for future factory boiler conversions and installations.

As legislation and shifting energy markets reshape the United States business landscape, sustainable business practices, carbon reduction, and highly energy-efficient operations are becoming increasingly crucial across all industries. No current federal legislation has established a cap-and-trade system or similar pricing for carbon emissions in the United States. Despite this, 48 states and the District of Columbia have developed State Climate Action Plans and/or Priority Climate Action Plans. Additionally, 23 states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have set specific greenhouse gas reduction goals. The United States beet sugar industry must be prepared to adapt to potential state and federal mandates on emissions reductions and carbon pricing. The European Union and Canada, with their mature tax and secondary market systems for carbon pricing, serve as models for the potential future. These systems have significantly influenced both their regional and global markets and promoted a shift towards sustainable energy solutions. They have also created new opportunities for alternative revenue streams from renewable energy production which could benefit from substantial tax credits and price incentives. To take advantage of these opportunities, increase energy efficiency, and prepare for market changes due to emissions pricing, the U.S. beet sugar industry must embrace a combination of traditional energy efficiency methods, modern sustainability practices, and innovative technologies. Projects that offer a positive return on investment with minimal to no reliance on tax credits or other incentives, cutting-edge technologies aimed at complete decarbonization and sustainable energy production, and every solution in between should be concurrently investigated and made ready to be implemented at the plant and company level to ensure the industry is prepared for all potential futures.

By combining continuous crystallisation with mechanical vapour compression, the energy requirement can be significantly reduced. In crystallisation, the temperature difference between the heating steam and the vapour has to be kept low, which makes the vertical continuous pan VKT (“Verdampfungskristallisationsturm”) with minimum energy input particularly suitable for this process. Using custom strategies for a VKT with a plant configuration that comprises mechanical vapour compression, the energy requirement in the sugar house can be further reduced. This paper discusses the effect on the overall energy requirement of a beet sugar factory.

Molasses desugarization using simulated moving bed chromatography has been widely adopted within the US beet sugar industry. Processing of the high-purity extract fraction from this operation can be integrated into the factory in a number of ways. However, since the extract is typically higher in both color and purity than thick juice, extract crystallization using the standard three-boiling scheme can be challenging. Adding the extract into the white boiling allows the extract to be more easily exhausted down to an acceptable final molasses purity through all three stages of crystallization but yields a higher product sugar color. Alternatively, adding the extract into the high raw boiling allows for more effective color elimination, but raises the purity of the final molasses due to the difficulty of exhausting such high purity material in only two crystallization stages. Ion exchange decolorization of the extract prior to crystallization is an attractive solution to this problem but would normally result in the generation of unacceptably large quantities of brine waste for disposal due to the high color loads involved. Recently, this problem was solved when Amalgamated Research developed and patented a “no-waste” decolorization process that uses membrane nano-filtration to recover inorganic salts from the separator raffinate stream and uses these to regenerate an ion exchange resin in extract decolorization service. After regeneration, the spent regenerant is recombined with the raffinate stream without affecting its value as a coproduct. Extensive pilot testing with materials from several facilities has demonstrated that high resin color loadings can be achieved, while providing extract decolorization of more than 70%. This promising technology offers the possibility of improving overall sugar-end performance by reducing sugar recycle, thereby increasing overall sucrose extraction.

Indian and overseas sugar mills are expanding capacity and looking for innovative designs of various process house equipment which could minimize, steam consumption, power consumption, process losses, man power, required space for installation and better capacity utilization. To increase the revenue, sugar mills have to install the energy saving equipment in the process house to reduce steam & power consumption in addition to the improvement in the product quality. Split/Dual Continuous vacuum pans provides significant advantages such as complete automation, minimal supervision, steam economy, better exhaustion, uniform crystals, high rate of crystallization, high throughput, improved quality and maximum capacity utilization. The design concept of Split /Dual continuous pans has been developed by “M/S Shrijee Process Engineering Works Ltd”, Mumbai, India, to ensure the above benefits to the sugar mills. These pans can run with V3/V4 vapor from multiple effect evaporators. The split continuous vacuum pan is having the flexibility to operate at 50% to 100% of the designed capacity in correlation with beet/cane processing; and either side 50% of the pan can be taken for water boiling without stopping the complete pan. Dual continuous pan can be utilized for simultaneous boiling of any two grades of massecuite or any one grade of massecuite boiling or one massecuite boiling can be stopped and other massecuite can be boiled as and when required. Both, Split and Dual continuous pans, are having the provision to utilize the different pressure vapor simultaneously at different sides of the calendria. These pans have been running successfully for A, B and C massecuite in India and overseas. Shrijee Split continuous pans of each 180 m³ (6356.64 ft³) volume for “C” massecuite, “B” massecuite and “A” massecuite have been working with excellent results since 2018, 2020 and 2023 respectively in LASUCA, USA. A Split/Dual continuous vacuum pan provides major advantages to achieve more effective use of installed volumetric capacity than batch pans. Additional advantages are reduced supervision, lesser steam consumption, consistency in the product massecuite and easy operation. In order to maximize the benefits, Split/Dual continuous pans must be operated to achieve high rate of crystallization, maximum exhaustion and high throughput so as to get shorter return on investment. This paper shall emphasize several important designs and operating criterion for maximizing the benefits to the sugar mill from Split/Dual continuous pans.

Odor control in retention ponds, especially those used in high-loading industrial processes like sugar beet processing, is essential for protecting environmental quality, maintaining positive community relations, and in some cases, meeting permit requirements. These odors originate from high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) loadings, which deplete oxygen in the pond and lead to anaerobic conditions. This process results in the release of volatile, odorous compounds such as hydrogen sulfide (primarily), ammonia, amines, mercaptans, and organic acids, which can be a significant nuisance if left unaddressed. This presentation takes a wholistic approach to managing pond odors, starting with looking at how to keep sugar hits from happening in the first place (process improvements & high-risk events inside the process.) We will also go over best sampling and monitoring techniques to help identify and quantify the components causing nuisance odors. Using these methods also help to evaluate each treatment strategies’ efficacy. USP’s recommended approach involves monitoring parameters like COD/BOD, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and key odorant compounds, along with specialized procedures, such as the Purge Test, to help assess volatile odorants in liquid samples. Additionally, we will cover the use of handheld and temporary/permanent installation for fence line and point source odor sniffing. With a clear assessment of pond conditions, targeted odor control strategies can be implemented to prevent volatilization and directly address pond odors. Strategies for reducing odorous compound volatilization include the use of binding agents, pH adjustments, and physical containment measures like controlled aeration timing or pond covers. Addressing pond septicity is equally important and may require aeration and oxygenation solutions, ranging from mechanical aeration to the addition of hydrogen peroxide, nitrates, or biocides to support biological balance. Controlling the pond’s microbial environment is another strategy for odor management. Through bioaugmentation, specific strains can be encouraged to proliferate and out-compete odor-producing bacteria. Additionally, liquid-phase oxidation treatments—whether through pond capping, targeted area applications, or full-volume treatment—can provide efficient odor reduction and an operational lever to pull during process upsets. For vapor-phase emissions, options like masking agents, cover-and-treat methods, and improved ventilation help to manage off-gassing effectively. These targeted approaches provide sustainable, reliable odor management solutions for retention ponds, supporting both sugar beet processing operations and the broader community by mitigating nuisance odors. This presentation will cover a wide variety of topics and will use the experience and expertise of multiple operators and vendors.

The agricultural raw material is received with significant variations. During processing some of these variations can be reduced, but other variation may be introduced by the process. After crystallization the separation in centrifuges gives an opportunity to adjust the final sugar color by varying the amount of wash water to remove more or less of the crystals’ surface film of mother liquor. Due to rapid changes in the massecuite, it is customary to wash more than strictly necessary, so crystals with color outside specifications can be avoided with high probability. Factories check the quality by samples taken at 1 hour, 2 hours, or larger intervals, either as snap or composite samples. The amount of wash is adjusted accordingly, but always leaving a comfortable safety margin to the color limit. Real-time colorimeters mounted so they can measure the crystal color just after wash eliminate the risk of variations between samples and ensure the measurements are representative, as all sugar is measured (except for sugar covered by discharges from other centrifugals). Such instruments have been installed in factories for real-time adjustment of the wash. Result about reduced water usage, reduced dissolution of sucrose, and other process improvements will be given. Keywords: sugar color, centrifuge wash water, automation, real-time measurement

Sugar beets account for 20-25 percent of the global sugar demand. However, post-harvest losses due to sucrose degradation can significantly impact on the overall yield and quality of sugar. Accurate and timely monitoring of sucrose content is crucial to minimize these losses. Traditional laboratory methods, while precise, are often time-consuming, labor-intensive, and destructive. Hyperspectral imaging emerges as a promising alternative, offering rapid, non-destructive, and accurate analysis of various quality parameters, including sucrose content. To develop robust hyperspectral imaging model for sugar beet quality assessment, sugar beet samples will be randomly collected from three locations: Moorhead and Renville in Minnesota, and Wahpeton, North Dakota. Sugar beet roots will be washed, sliced into 15 mm thickness, and spectral images will be acquired using the Specim SWIR camera in the spectral range of 1,000-2,500 nm. Images will first undergo radiometric correction to remove noise and mitigate any illumination variations. Pre-processing methods, such as Standard Normal Variate for normalization and Savitzky-Golay filtering for derivative-based signal smoothing, will be applied. For feature extraction, discriminant analysis and Principal Component Analysis will be employed. The 10 most significant features, representing sucrose, raffinose, and moisture content, will be selected from the raw 224 spectral signatures. The extracted features and pre-processed signals obtained from standard procedures will be combined into a single dataset. This dataset will then be split into training, validation, and testing sets in a 6:2:2 ratio. Various machine learning and deep learning algorithms will be used for classification. It is anticipated that Linear Discriminant Analysis and Artificial Neural Networks will perform best, with high correlations of 0.90 and 0.95 and standard errors of prediction of 0.51 and 0.56. These results are expected to support the claim that machine learning models trained on spectral signatures cannot destructively predict sucrose, raffinose, and moisture content in sugar beets. Keywords: Hyperspectral imaging, Sucrose, Machine learning, Deep learning.

Currently, American Crystal Sugar Company (ACSC) evaluates seeding refractive dissolved solids (RDS) by calculating supersaturation (SSAT) at a given RDS, temperature, and purity.  This was traditionally completed utilizing Grut’s coefficients of impure solution solubilities to calculate ysat for a given non-sugar to water ratio (ns/w).  During the past several campaigns, ACSC realized the need for higher seeding RDS on batch crystallization pans.  The necessity to maintain higher seeding RDS was made evident by realization of increased instances of dissolved mill seed at a target SSAT.  To better understand the need for higher seeding RDS at ACSC, an evaluation of sucrose solubility on ACSC’s technical solutions was undertaken.  ACSC collected monthly samples of saturated spin-off syrups for high green, intergreen, and molasses during the fiscal years 2024 and 2025 beet slicing and extract campaigns.   The samples were prepped to obtain different ns/w ratios.  The samples were crystallized with excess sucrose at 80⁰C for 24 hours for each run.  Mother liquor was separated from the crystals for each sample pneumatically and evaluated for RDS and purity.  This data was used for calculation of qsat,i.  The ns/w ratios were charted against the saturation coefficient to obtain a new 4^th order polynomial equation.  To date, it appears this will be a more accurate representation of ACSC’s technical solutions at a given ns/w for estimating the saturation coefficients.  The saturation coefficient of a specific ns/w ratio at a given RDS, purity, and temperature is then used for calculating sucrose supersaturation.   ACSC was interested in how much ACSC’s technical solutions sucrose solubility changed over the course of a campaign as non-sugar load shifted through extended storage days.

A continuously changing demand challenges the lime kiln operation in beet sugar factories. There is the request for increased lime capacities, for a flexibility in fuel usages such as coke vs anthracite or natural gas vs biogas, for an increased lifetime and less maintenance efforts and finally for energy saving measures respectively fuel cost reduction. In some factories the lime kiln is a very long existing asset. The outer steel structure is given, but the inner shape can be adapted by a modified refractory lining to improve the material flow and the air-energy distribution. At the end of the day a chance to improve kiln performance. In detail the paper touches the topics (1) concept of a refractory lining, (2) different requirements for coke or natural gas operation, (3) documentation and reporting as basis for improvements, (4) wear phenomena, (5) chemical infiltration and thermal impacts, (6) damages and port-mortem analysis, (7) veneering and maintenance repairing, (8) energy saving with refractory bricks, (9) warehousing and hydration prevention.

A refractory lining is by far not a consumable. Reliability during the campaign, durability and certain capability to cover process or mechanical events inside the lime kiln makes it necessary to consider a refractory lining as a key component of a lime kiln in a beet sugar factory. The paper will contain drawings, pictures, microscope images and videos and will bring the topic of refractory and the real life inside a lime kiln to the audience.

The Amalgamated Sugar Company, in partnership with dataPARC and Sugars International LLC have created a proof-of-concept integration between the Sugars^TM mass and energy balance tool and dataPARC factory data visualization and analytics.  The new application utilizes factory data from dataPARC to set the Sugars^TM model input parameters, then imports the Sugars^TM balance results back to dataPARC.  These simulation results can be viewed alongside actual factory process data in a single dataPARC trend display, providing insight into potential optimization opportunities, equipment malfunctions, and/or measurement errors.

Amalgamated Research LLC (ARi) has been a provider of molasses desugarization system (MDS) technology for the American beet sugar industry. After the equipment is designed, constructed and operating parameters are initially optimized, process stability becomes paramount to ensure optimal performance is maintained. This presentation will provide an understanding of the factors that influence efficient operations management from a holistic standpoint, providing guidance on how to recognize process red flags and the main mechanical aspects that have an effect on process consistency. A discussion on the foundations of the process management hierarchy is provided, and as well as the various maintenance strategies that need to be adopted to eliminate functional failures through early detection, identifying issues before production losses take place. Additionally, base cases on recent MDS commissioning and optimization are discussed, including an overview on how to take advantage of monitoring programs, analytical tools, instrument trends and other elements available for process troubleshooting is included in an attempt to provide managers, supervisors, planners and operators the knowledge that facilitates better decision-making that leads to successful operations.

Amalgamated Sugar’s Nampa Idaho facility has historically only had manual control of milk of lime (MOL) flow to the purification process. This prevented the factory from efficiently responding to changes in juice flow or quality, and also led to widespread overliming as there was no real-time visibility on usage. Beginning in crop year 2023, the Nampa facility commissioned new control logic to their MOL dosing system which calculates MOL flow based on mass flow of non-sugars coming in with the raw juice. Non-sugar loading is determined by lab-calculated raw juice AP every hour and fed into the automation. MOL mass flow is calculated with online density measurements on MOL and on sweetwater. The MOL flow splits to pre, cold, and hot limers are user controlled based on lab calculated invert destruction, and optimum prelimer alkalinity. With this new control, Nampa reduced their CaO/NS loading by 20%. This effectively eliminated previous factory bottlenecks due to limekiln throughput limitations, while simultaneously improving limekiln health and stability.

Chromatography has long been a critical technology across various industries for the separation and purification of complex mixtures. Recent breakthroughs in chromatography technology offer new opportunities for increased efficiency and cost savings for both new and existing industrial sites. This presentation will explore key innovations coming from the numerical world. Advanced digital tools, including AI and digital twin technology, are revolutionizing chromatography systems. These tools provide real-time data monitoring, proactive recommendations, and predictive modeling, enabling operators to optimize system performance, achieve desired outcomes, and reduce resource consumption. An industrial case study will be presented in detail to show the outcomes of the implementation of such technologies. Benefits will be measured not only in terms of operational cost savings but also from an environmental perspective. This presentation will discuss the broad applications and advantages of these innovative chromatography solutions, demonstrating their potential to enhance process efficiency, lower costs, and improve overall operational performance across various industries.

Advances in cooling technology are providing sugar beet factories with new options when it comes to the dual objective of upgrading outdated equipment and decarbonizing their existing operations. This presentation will explore the approaches that different heat exchange technologies are taking to improve producers’ operational sustainability by reducing energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and overall carbon footprint. Specifically, the discussion will focus on vertical plate-style moving bed heat exchangers (MBHEs) that are located just prior to storage or bagging. By cooling sugar indirectly via water in a closed-loop system and avoiding the use of high-horsepower fans, this near-zero emissions solution only consumes an average of 0.4 kWh/ton of sugar – a 90% reduction when compared with typical rotary drums or fluid bed coolers that require upward of ~5 kWh/ton. Other technologies to be discussed will include heat pipe heat exchangers (HPHEs), which, while decades old, has recently been providing industries such as sugar with new opportunities for waste heat recovery. HPHEs have demonstrated their economic value across a range of industries such as food processing, energy and automotive. These systems are well suited at recovering thermal energy from challenging sources such as hot and particle-laden exhaust streams. The presentation will conclude with real-world examples of how these technologies are actively decarbonizing operations worldwide.

At American Crystal Sugar (ACS), many microbial species have been identified using deep sequencing of 16S rRNA gene PCR amplicons with the MinION sequencing device (Oxford Nanopore Technologies). These identifications are from the evaluation of sugar beets, sugar beet storage conditions, and factory process samples. There have been many common microbes identified, such as Leuconostoc, Pseudomonas, and Aerococcus. There have also been lesser known microbes found in abundance, such as Gloeothece, Sphingobacterium, and Agronema. Leuconostoc and many of the lactic acid bacteria have been well documented for the metabolites that they generate in the metabolism of sucrose, glucose, and fructose. The lesser known microbes identified at ACS have unknown effects to their existence in the beets and process juices. In a current study, a common species, Pseudomonas punonensis, was evaluated for the potential capability to metabolize sucrose and subsequent metabolite production.  P. punonensis, a Gram-negative bacilli, was grown both aerobically and anaerobically at 28⁰ C and below 10⁰ C in tryptic soy broth. The metabolites (chemical markers) monitored at ACS are lactic acid, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), ethanol, and invert sugars (glucose and fructose) by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This species of Pseudomonas was not able to metabolize sucrose (lack of invertase) as an energy source. It did, however, utilize glucose and fructose as energy sources.

Over the last 5 years, Pfeifer & Langen has been developing an IoT platform to optimize the sugar beet process. In the first step, the focus was on developing and adapting new sensors to control the sugar production processes from beet to silo in real time. One of the adapted technologies is the use of NIR process devices in the sugar process from beet to molasses, which provide real-time feedback on the quality of the raw material, by-products, juices in different production steps and syrups in the final sugar product. All with the intention of supporting operators to run the process proactively. However, the main goal of this development is how the devices support our own developed “predictive models” to run the factory in autopilot mode. The presentation shows our concept of a fully automated process and where we already continuously measure the previously mentioned products. We explain how the data flow works and where and how we can use the data in our general concept of a fully automated process. Finally, we present the products we have developed together with our cooperation partner and how they can also support third parties.

Microbial-infected sugarbeets with rot along with associated soil microbes are carried into factory processing streams during raw sugar extraction.  These microbes consume sucrose and commonly cause downstream processing issues.  In particular, bacterial exopolysaccharides often cause operational challenges by clogging filters, increasing viscosity, and interfering with clarification and sucrose crystallization. Therefore, isolation and identification of the microbes and key phenotypes are central toward ongoing efforts to reduce microbial-related sucrose losses. This study was conducted in order to obtain relevant microbial isolates from sugar beet factories to facilitate further investigation into impacts on processing as well as to determine optimal antimicrobial dosing. To this end we conducted a microbial isolation study from juice and biofilm material broadly sampling from eighteen sugarbeet processing factories across North America.  Juice and biofilm material was collected by factory operators into cryovials containing glycerol to produce a cryostock that could be frozen while preserving microbial viability until samples could be shipped to the research laboratory in New Orleans, LA and cultured for identification.  This effort resulted in 612 isolates. In total, 379 isolates, belonging to 22 genera, were obtained from 33 diffuser tower juice samples, and 233 isolates, belonging to 26 genera, were obtained from 21 biofilm samples. Susceptibility testing of key groups of microbial isolates by microdilution assay has been used to assess the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of conventional antimicrobial agents to prevent microbial growth. The MIC value of sodium hypochlorite for most Leuconostoc, Weissella, Bacillus, and Peribacillus isolates was typically 250 ppm with a few Leuconostoc outliers showing increased resistance at significantly higher doses.  Pantoea and Rahnella typically had higher MIC values near 500 ppm of sodium hypochlorite. MIC doses of Hydritreat 2216 with peracetic acid active ingredient ranged from 63-250 ppm for Leuconostoc, Weissella, Bacillus, Peribacillus, Pantoea, Rahnella, and Acinetobacter isolates.  Hops Betastab XL was tested against Gram-positive isolates and showed MIC values typically in the range of 16-31 with a few outlier MIC values for more resistant strains of Leuconostoc above 1000 ppm.  Avancid GL50 (glutaraldehyde) showed relatively lower effectiveness against isolates with MIC value ranges of 250-1000+ ppm.  Magnacide D showed better inhibition of Gram-negative isolates at MIC values between 16-250 ppm whereas it was generally less effective against Gram-positive isolates. These studies also indicate that high temperature of 50 ℃ or more is advantageous for controlling growth of key microbial contaminants and may be more impactful for processing than some antimicrobial agents.

In the manufacturing of most products there is control of the inputs.  This control is designed to maintain the standard of the manufacturing process and the quality of the end product.  Processing of sugarbeets into sugar involves taking the harvested root, either fresh or stored and converting it into refined sugar.  This Primary Processing takes the root and converts it into crystal sugar which allows it to be stored.  After entering the plant the sugarbeets are washed and then sliced into cossettes, it is from these cossettes that the sugar is extracted.  The cossettes are brought into the process on the ‘cossette belt’ and it is at this stage in the process that samples are collected with a given frequency and analyzed for their quality. The capacity of a sugarbeet plant is measured in tons sliced per hour or day.  The slice capacity of a plant can range from 200 tons to over 700 tons per hour.  For most plants they take a sample of the incoming cossettes about every 2 hours.  This sample provides only a snapshot of the incoming beets due to the large volume of material that can be sliced between the sampling and the range of geography that the beets are received from. To improve the knowledge of the incoming raw good and provide real time information, KWS has developed a methodology to use NIRS technology from its BEETROMETER®.  We will share with you how this system is able to provide you with quality values for POL Sugar and Dry Matter and the possibilities that the future holds.

An innovative vacuum pan tube has been developed, tested, trialed and commercialized; it provides an alternative solution for increasing the capacity at a significantly lower investment when compared to the market equivalents. This technology has been in operation in numerous vacuum pans, some for several seasons, and the benefits to vacuum pan throughput are significant. The dimple tube technology was developed over a four-year period, from an initial concept through to its commercialization, and it has been through a series of analyses, alterations, tests and trials. These analyses included Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to predict its flow and performance characteristics, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to analyze the direct and fatigue stresses, pressure testing, non-destructive testing, in-service trials and laboratory testing. Manufacturing equipment and systems have been designed, developed and implemented as part of the commercialization process, in order to ensure the reliable and repeatable production of the technology, which has been taken from a concept, through to a commercially available and value-adding product. The outcome is a new tube technology that increases the heating surface area of an existing vessel by approximately 15%. The performance benefits of the additional heating surface area are as expected, but the increased turbulence makes a significant difference to the heat transfer coefficients, resulting in a significant increase in the evaporation rate and an increase in the throughput. The trial operation has shown no drawbacks or compromises to the existing operations. Retrofitting to the existing vessels is as simple as a retube of the vacuum pan. Due to the improved heat transfer coefficients when utilizing the dimple tube technology, rigorous lab-scale tests and full-scale trials have also shown that the tubes provide the opportunity to utilize lower grade steam to achieve the same heat transfer, enabling energy savings in the factory. Keywords: vacuum pan, tubes, heat transfer, turbulence, continuous vacuum pan, batch vacuum pan, dimple tubes, energy savings

The rising prices of fossil fuels and increasing costs for environmental protection are prompting sugar manufacturers to invest in innovative processes aimed at reducing production costs. As a result, development projects around the globe are primarily focused on minimizing steam and electricity consumption, as well as optimizing the secondary utilization of waste energy and CO₂ emissions. One significant challenge in implementing new technologies at certain sugar factories is the reliance on outdated or under-invested machinery. Depending on the specific technology and processing methods employed in each factory, various scenarios and developmental pathways can be recommended. A major obstacle, particularly for factories with moderate to high energy demands, is the gradual and costly transition required to reach a processing level where these innovative measures can be effectively applied. This paper summarizes insights from a long-term development project involving beet factories, highlighting several technological improvements achieved between 2009 and 2022. It provides a detailed account of experiences in optimizing process technology and reducing manufacturing costs in a form of “master plan” of process development. The contribution presents practical process scenarios of the master plan that have emerged from recent technological advancements. The actual campaign performance is described through footprint balances, leading to identification of possible process modifications. The first scenario focuses on moderate investments aimed at optimizing heat exchange and evaporation. Another scenario discusses the extension of the evaporation station from five to six effects, enhancing optimal vapor utilization. A subsequent scenario examines the impact of low temperature drying on fossil energy demand. Finally, the paper presents a scenario involving vapor compression in both evaporation and sugar house processing. Selected projects are categorized by investment costs, ranging from moderate and mid-term improvements to more strategic investments. The payback period and return on investment are central themes throughout this paper. The primary challenge remains how to reduce the overall energy requirement of the process while simultaneously identifying the right technologies that significantly lower CO₂ emissions in a financially viable manner.

The North American market has witnessed a significant surge in sugar demand over the past few years. As a result, sugar beet plants are under heightened pressure to escalate their production capabilities while maintaining profitability. Profit margins in the industry are generally low, prompting plant managers to set ambitious efficiency goals to reduce operational disruptions and unplanned outages. One of the crucial aspects of maintaining high efficiency in sugar beet production is through the use of reliable technology. Leading producers are now investing in advanced machinery and equipment designed to last the entirety of their estimated lifespan, as operational hiccups and unplanned outages can have a detrimental effect on production. These issues can be mitigated through the use of advanced technologies and robust equipment that are specifically designed to withstand the demanding conditions of sugar beet processing. In this technical discussion, I will review the major challenges that valves face in critical sugar processing applications. Furthermore, I will drill into the revolutionary valve technologies that mitigate the common problems that stem from the negative effects of the harsh media, while enhancing service life and reliability.