Reduced capital and operating costs for beet molasses desugarization: Pilot scale optimization.

Abstract

The desugarization of beet molasses through simulated moving bed (SMB) technology has been practiced commercially in the United States for more than thirty years. Currently, most U.S. beet sugar producers operate some form of molasses desugarization system. Substantial improvements in the capacity and performance of these systems have been made over the years. However, this development process has typically been based on an expert-guided approach to optimization, which is not a tactic that is necessarily guaranteed to find an optimal set of operating conditions. Recent research and development efforts at Amalgamated Research have instead taken a rigorous and comprehensive approach to the optimization of a coupled loop beet molasses separator system. This experimental methodology, combined with in-house mathematical modeling capability, has led to significant advances being made to reduce both the capital and operating cost of molasses desugarization systems. Some of these improvements have been confirmed by testing on a full industrial scale with an existing second loop of a molasses separator. Further loop 1 factory trials are planned for the 2022-23 campaign.