Sugar beet ( Beta vulgaris L.), a member of the Chenopodiaceae family, is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production.
The sugar beet is directly related to the beetroot, chard and fodder beet, all descended by cultivation from the sea beet.
The European Union, the United States, and Russia are the world's three largest sugar beet producers, although only the European Union and Ukraine are significant exporters of sugar from beets. The U.S. harvested 1,004,600 acres of sugarbeets in 2008 alone. Beet sugar accounts for 30% of the world's sugar production.
In the United States, genetically modified sugar beets resistant to glyphosate (marketed by Monsanto Company as Roundup), a herbicide, were planted for the first time in the spring of 2008. Sugar from the biotechnology-enhanced sugarbeet has been approved for human and animal consumption in the European Union. This action by the EU executive body allows unrestricted imports of food and feed products made from (H7-1) glyphosate-tolerant (Roundup Ready) sugarbeets. On September 21, 2009, a federal court ruled that the USDA had violated federal law in deregulating Roundup Ready sugar beets without adequately evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts of allowing commercial production, and will be considering an appropriate injunction.
Culture
Sugar beet is a hardy biennial plant that can be grown commercially in a wide variety of temperate climates. During its first growing season, it produces a large (1–2 kg) storage root whose dry mass is 15–20% sucrose by weight. If the plant is not harvested at this time, then during its second growing season, nutrients in the root will be used to produce flowers and seeds and the root will decrease in size. In commercial beet production, the root is harvested after the first growing season.
In most temperate climates, beets are planted in the spring and harvested in the autumn. At the northern end of its range, growing seasons as short as 100 days can produce commercially viable sugarbeet crops. In warmer climates, such as in California's Imperial Valley, sugarbeets are a winter crop, planted in the autumn and harvested in the spring. In recent years, Syngenta AG has developed the so-called tropical sugar beet. It allows the plant to grow in tropical and subtropical regions. Beets are planted from a small seed; 1 kg of beet seed comprises 100,000 seeds and will plant over a hectare of ground (1 lb will plant about an acre).
Up until the latter half of the 20th century, sugarbeet production was highly labor-intensive, as weed control was managed by densely planting the crop, which then had to be manually thinned with a hoe two or even three times during the growing season. Harvesting also required many workers. Although the roots could be lifted by a plough-like device which could be pulled by a horse team, the rest of the preparation was by hand. One laborer grabbed the beets by their leaves, knocked them together to shake free loose soil, and then laid them in a row, root to one side, greens to the other. A second worker equipped with a beet hook (a short-handled tool between a billhook and a sickle) followed behind, and would lift the beet and swiftly chop the crown and leaves from the root with a single action. Working this way, he would leave a row of beets that could be forked into the back of a cart.
Today, mechanical sowing, herbicide application for weed control and mechanical harvesting have removed this reliance on numerous workers.
Harvesting is now entirely mechanical. A roto beater uses a series of blades to chop the leaf and crown (which is high in non-sugar impurities) from the root. The beet harvester lifts the root, and removes excess soil from the root in a single pass over the field. A modern harvester is typically able to cover six rows at the same time. The beets are dumped into trucks as the harvester rolls down the field and delivered to the factory. The conveyor then removes more soil.
If the beets are to be left for later delivery, they are formed into clamps. Straw bales are used to shield the beets from the weather. Provided the clamp is well built with the right amount of ventilation, the beets do not significantly deteriorate. Beets that freeze and then defrost produce complex carbohydrates that cause severe production problems in the factory. In the UK, loads may be hand examined at the factory gate before being accepted.
In the US, the fall harvest begins with the first hard frost, which arrests photosynthesis and the further growth of the root. Depending on the local climate, it may be carried out over the course of a few weeks or be prolonged throughout the winter months. The harvest and processing of the beet is referred to as "the campaign", reflecting the organization required to deliver the crop at a steady rate to processing factories that run 24 hours a day for the duration of the harvest and processing (for the UK the campaign lasts approx 5 months). In the Netherlands this period is known as " de bietencampagne ", a time to be careful when driving local roads in the area the beets are grown. The reason for this is the naturally high clay content of the soil, causing slippery roads when soil falls from the trailers during transport.
Sebewaing, Michigan is known (to Americans) as the sugar beet capital of the world. Sebewaing lies in the Thumb region of Michigan; both the region and state are major sugar beet producers. Sebewaing is home to one of three Michigan Sugar Company factories. The town sponsors an annual "Michigan Sugar Festival".
Processing
Reception
After they are harvested, beets are hauled to a factory. In the U.K., beets are transported by a hauler, or by a tractor and a trailer by local farmers. Railways and boats are no longer used. Some beets were carried by rail in the Republic of Ireland, until the shutdown of sugar beet production in 2006 after the end of the government subsidies.
Each load is weighed and sampled before it gets tipped onto the reception area, typically a "flat pad" of concrete, where it is moved into large heaps. The beet sample is checked for
- soil tare - the amount of non beet delivered
- crown tare - the amount of low sugar beet delivered
- sugar content ("pol") - amount of sucrose in the crop
- nitrogen content - for recommending future fertilizer use to the farmer.
From these elements, the actual sugar content of the load is calculated and the grower's payment determined.
The beet is moved from the heaps into a central channel or gulley, where it is washed towards the processing plant.
Diffusion
After reception at the processing plant, the beet roots are washed, mechanically sliced into thin strips called cossettes , and passed to a machine called a diffuser to extract the sugar content into a water solution.
Diffusers are long vessels of many metres in which the beet slices go in one direction while hot water goes in the opposite direction. The movement may either be by a rotating screw or the whole unit rotates, and the water and cossettes move through internal chambers. There are three common designs of diffuser: the horizontal rotating 'RT' (Raffinerie Tirlemontoise , manufacturer), inclined screw 'DDS' ( De Danske Sukkerfabrikker ), or vertical screw "Tower". A less common design uses a moving belt of cossettes, with water pumped onto the top of the belt and poured through. In all cases the flow rates of cossettes and water are in the ratio one to two. Typically cossettes take about 90 minutes to pass through the diffuser, the water only 45 minutes. These are all countercurrent exchange methods that extract more sugar from the cossettes using less water than if they merely sat in a hot water tank. The liquid exiting the diffuser is called raw juice . The colour of raw juice varies from black to a dark red depending on the amount of oxidation, which is itself dependent on diffuser design.
The used cossettes, or pulp , exits the diffuser at about 95% moisture but low sucrose content. Using screw presses, the wet pulp is then pressed down to 75% moisture. This recovers additional sucrose in the liquid pressed out of the pulp, and reduces the energy needed to dry the pulp. The pressed pulp is dried and sold as animal feed, while the liquid pressed out of the pulp is combined with the raw juice, or more often introduced into the diffuser at the appropriate point in the countercurrent process. The final byproduct, Vinasse, is used as fertilizer or growth substrate for yeast cultures.
During diffusion, there is a degree of breakdown of the sucrose into invert sugars. These can undergo further breakdown into acids. These breakdown products are not only losses of sucrose but also have knock-on effects reducing the final output of processed sugar from the factory. To limit (thermophilic) bacterial action, the feed water may be dosed with formaldehyde and control of the feed water pH is also practised. There have been attempts at operating diffusion under alkaline conditions, but
Grow Sugar Crystals - Make Your Own Rock Candy
These are step by step instructions for growing your own sugar crystals or rock candy.
THE CRYSTAL GROWING HOMEPAGE
crystals of potassium dichromate . Introduction. Thank you for visiting my homepage ! In spite the fact that I am German and my mother language is German this website is primary ...
American Crystal Sugar Company: Sugarbeet Agronomy: Beetseed
Crystal Beet Seed conducts the Official Coded Variety Performance Trials in the Crystal growing region. Crystal Beet Seed Variety Details. Variety & Freight Comparison Calculator ...
Growing Crystals: Recipes
Growing Crystal s: recipes you can try, but first a few points... Something's not working? ... But even if you do both of these, there is still a limit to the amount of sugar ...
Grow Crystals - Crystal Growing Projects Recipes and Information
Sugar Crystal Growing Problems Sugar crystals, also known as rock candy, are great crystals to grow because they are beautiful, can be grown in any color of the rainbow, and because ...
Growing Sugar Crystals
Information about the growing of sugar crystals ... Recipes for Growing Sugar Crystals. Since I issued this website I got several requests for recipes to grow crystals, some asked ...
Rock Candy - How to Make Rock Candy Video
Rock Candy - How to Make Flavored Rock Candy Sugar Crystal Growing Problems - Help with Sugar Crystals ... sides or bottom of your container, just transfer the rock candy and crystal ...
Growing Crystals Made Easy
The crystal shape reflects the basic patterns by which the molecules of the crystal build up. For example, growing a sugar crystal. ... the chemicals for crystal growing ...
Sugar Crystal Science Lesson: Teaching the Three States of Matter with ...
Introduce science students to the three states of matter by growing rock candy sugar crystals.
Sugar Crystal Growing, Made Simple
Frequently Asked Questions. Sugar Crystal Growing, Made Simple /h3>Name: Marian Status: educator Grade: K-3 Location: AZ Question: I am trying to find a very basic explanation to ...