INFLUENCE VARIOUS REAGENTS ON THE MOLECULAR DIFFUSION INDEX OF SUCROSE FROM BEET

Abstract

Food products from vegetable raw materials play a special role in the food industry. Sugar is one of the strategically important products. The significance of its is great due to its wide use in confectionery, bakery, liquor, canning, biochemical, pharmaceutical and other branches of human activity. Effective development of the domestic sugar industry depends on the terms of competition with European partners. Production of granulated sugar includes a significant amount of energy-intensive and technologically complex operations, one of which is the extraction of sucrose from beet chips by means of hot countercurrent extraction. The most important criterion for the extraction process efficiency evaluation is the coefficient of molecular diffusion. The efficiency of using of beet chips thermo chemical processing before extraction depending on the quality of processed beet was investigated. It was found out that when using a low quality beet the diffusion coefficient decreases compared to healthy beet. The use of solutio ns of some salts for beet chips heat treatment has an overall positive effect on the diffusion coefficient. A method for recovering sucrose from beet with the use of compounds of Al2(SO4), Ca(SO)4, and (NH4)2SO4 as the extractants was proposed. It was found out that beet samples treatment with solutions of proposed salts provides a sucrose smooth transition from the pores of sugar beet tissue into the extractant due to intense convective washout. It is caused by the high degree of tissue cells plasmolysis achieved in its processing with solutions of proposed reagents. The results obtained indicate a significant increase of the sucrose diffusion coefficient in the ammonium sulfate solution used as the extractant.