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Tate & Lyle, Inc.

Jatal D Mannapperuma

Richard C Reisig

The present invention relates to a process for producing sugar from beets, comprising the steps of: (a) macerating beets or pieces thereof; (b) mechanically separating juice from the macerated beets; and (c) membrane filtering the separated juice, producing a retentate and a permeate. The mechanical extraction of juice can be done on a moving porous vacuum filtration belt with countercurrent flow of macerated beets and water. The pH of the vacuum extracted juice can be adjusted to at least about 7 by addition of sodium hydroxide. This process does not use conventional beet diffusion. No lime and no carbon dioxide are required to be contacted with the juice or the permeate in this process.

Process for production of purified beet juice for sugar manufacture

An improved spiral membrane and module for cross flow filtration where several of the membrane envelopes are wavelike or corrugated in structure to allow unobstructed flow of the feed to reduce the feed path fouling when used to filter feed containing particulate matter.

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Davis, CA, United States of America

Jatal D Mannapperuma