Modified sugar beet pulp and cellulose-based adsorbents as molasses quality enhancers: Assessing the treatment conditions

Abstract

To tackle the issue of non-sugar compounds reduction in sugar beet molasses towards improved sugar recovery and complete molasses valorisation, various treatments were developed. As a step forward to sustainability, this study explores the applicability of alkaline hydrogen peroxide treated sugar beet pulp (AHPSBP) and commercial cellulose-based adsorbents for molasses purification by monitoring the changes in molasses colour, turbidity and sucrose content. Treatment conditions defined by Box-Behnken design were pH (3–7), molasses dry substance (30–50° Brix), and adsorbent concentration (9–21 g/L) with constant treatment temperature. Favourable conditions for molasses colour reduction were acidic and neutral environment for commercial adsorbents (4.9–27.1%) and AHPSBP (20.3–32.7%), respectively. Turbidity reduction was higher than 90% in neutral environment regardless of applied adsorbent with minimal detected sucrose content reduction. AHPSBP exhibited greater potential regarding molasses colour and turbidity reduction compared to commercial adsorbents obtained at favourable pH with lower applied concentrations.Accordingly, AHPSBP was introduced as a novel, abundant, and low-cost adsorbent for molasses quality enhancement, contributing to the existing results concerning molasses purification obtained by bentonite and activated carbon application.