......................................................................................................................................................................

Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from

sugar beet
Navid Mostoufi, Ali Faridkhou, Rahmat Sotudeh Gharebagh and Hamid Reza Norouzi
Process Design and Simulation Research Centre, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Tehran, P.O. Box
11155/4563, Tehran, Iran. Tel. (98-21) 6696-7797. Fax (98-21) 6646-1024. E-mail mostoufi@ut.ac.ir

Abstract

Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from beet was carried out, and the resulting first-order
partial differential equations written for three main constituents of the system (sugar, non-sugars and water)
were solved numerically by an implicit finite-difference algorithm. The model was able to predict the axial
concentration profiles and the process variables such as Brix, purity and the percentage of sugar and non-
sugar components diffused during the process at the exit streams. The results of the model were compared
with the experimental data obtained from an industrial plant and a close agreement was observed. Further-
more, in an industrial extraction plant, it is always desirable to maintain a constant and uniform flow of mate-
rials exiting the tower to ensure that the properties of the effluent streams are not changed. To achieve this, a
proportional integral (PI) controller was installed in the process to control the liquid level in the tower.

Keywords: dynamic modelling, sugar diffusion, Brix, purity, level control

1. Introduction intracellular components in particular has seen a great

Sugar beet is essentially made up of many components
among which sucrose is the most important and is con-
sumed throughout the entire world as a sweetener. In the
sugar industry, the term ‘sugar’ often refers to sucrose
while other components (except water) comprising the cel-
lular structure of beet are all classified as non-sugars.
Proper diffusion of intracellular components in a solid–
liquid diffusion process requires the permeability of cell
membranes in the solid phase, an operation customarily
conducted thermally. In this method, a high temperature
(about 708C) of the liquid phase causes disintegration of
the cell membranes, thus permitting the intracellular com-
ponents to be released and extracted by the liquid phase.
The drawbacks of such operations are thermal degradation
of product properties and degraded juice quality. Although
other physical, chemical and biological methods have been
proposed to avoid the disadvantages of cell wall alteration
by heat (i.e. alkaline processing, reduction of particles,
addition of enzymes, etc.), none of them have been able
to replace thermal leaching processes (El-Belghiti et al.
2005).
The use of pulsed electric field (PEF)-based techniques
in food processing in general and for the diffusion of
Food Manufacturing Efficiency 3 (1) 49–56. DOI: 10.1616/1750-2683.0052
Submitted 1 December 2008. Accepted for publication 4 October 2009.
ISSN 1750-2683 # IFIS Publishing 2010. All Rights Reserved
amount of interest in recent decades. When exposed to an
electric field of sufficiently high intensity, the cell mem-
brane can be temporarily destabilised or irreversibly rup-
tured. This new method is very promising because the
PEF ensures non-thermal permeability of cellular mem-
branes and prevents the cell walls from undergoing ther-
mal alteration (El-Belghiti et al. 2005). It also seems to
remedy most of the drawbacks of the thermal diffusion
process but it has not yet been industrialised (Jemai and
Vorobiev 2003; El-Belghiti et al. 2005). Thus, the main
process for sugar diffusion is still thermal leaching.
In a countercurrent thermal leaching process, as shown
in Figure 1, sugar is extracted from sugar beets with hot
water as the solvent; the solvent enters the vertical diffu-
sion tower from the top while the beet slices, called cos-
settes, enter from the bottom as the solid phase. The
height of the cylindrical tower is between 14 and 20 m.
Inside the tower, a tubular shaft rotated slowly typically at
approximately 0.5 rpm. Special helicoidally shaped steel
pieces or flights are fitted on the shaft, and this causes the
upward movement of the cossettes. Although non-vertical
extractors like DDS (De Danske Sukkerfabrikker) systems
also exist, the most commonly used diffusion systems are
still vertical towers. During the countercurrent contact in
these towers, sugar and non-sugar compounds are trans-
ferred from the solid phase into the solvent phase due to
relative concentration differences. In such a process, a
50 Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from sugar beet N. Mostoufi et al.
Figure 1. Qualitative flow diagram of a tower diffuser
with its level control system.
moderately high temperature (70–758C) is required to
ensure complete diffusion of soluble materials (Korgul
1989; El-Belghiti et al. 2003). As the diffusion juice
passes down the tower, it is gradually enriched with solu-
ble materials, and leaves the tower from the bottom while
the exhausted beet cossettes whose sugar and water con-
tent are gradually depleted leave the tower from the top as
wet pulp. These wet pulps are further pressed to reduce
their sugar and water content. This water which is gener-
ally known as the press water is recycled to the process as
part of the diffusion water to reduce the fresh water consump-
tion in the process. The extracted juice known sometimes as
the raw juice will be further processed in subsequent stages
such as purification, evaporation and crystallisation so that
its impurities are removed.
There are two indexes used in the sugar industry by
which the quality of the extracted juice can be determined.
These indexes are Brix and purity. Brix is, by definition,
the amount of sugar and non-sugar components in the efflu-
ent juice which is sometimes known as total dry soluble
substance. Purity is the ratio of sugar to sugar plus non-
sugar components and is sometimes called quotient. Brix
and purity are the most commonly used properties for deter-
mining the quality of the effluent raw juice and are defined
by the following relationships (McCabe et al. 2006):
Bx ¼ S þ NS (1)
S

Q¼ (2)
S þ NS
From the descriptions given above, it can be concluded
that the more sugar is extracted from the beet cossettes, the
more will be the overall efficiency of the above-mentioned
processes. In other words, the diffusion section can be con-
sidered as one of the most important sections of a sugar fac-
tory. Despite the significance of the diffusion, there have
been few modelling attempts in this field. Although some
models for sloped tower diffusers exist, vertical tower diffu-
sers have not been investigated (Korgul 1989). Furthermore,
thermal leaching extractors are rarely included in the avail-
able commercial process simulators. Considering the above
facts, it seems necessary to develop a simulation tool for this
particular application in order to control and monitor the pro-
cess. This will enable the process men to impose changes in
the simulated process and investigate their effects on the pro-
cess performance and quality indexes, like Brix and purity,
before these changes have been applied to the real unit.
2. Mathematical modelling
The mathematical modelling will be presented in two
separate parts. First, tower modelling is carried out and its
governing equation will be discussed in detail. Afterwards,
the dynamic control of the juice level in the tower will be
investigated and the equations representing the controlling
scheme will be obtained.
2.1 Tower modelling
The process occurring in the tower diffuser is schemati-
cally shown in Figure 1. Several assumptions have been
made to develop this model as detailed below:

The beet particles are assumed to be cylindrical in
shape with a uniform concentration of their constitu-
ents (Van der Poel et al. 1998).

As the entire diffusion occurs in a narrow temperature
range of 69–738C, the constant temperature assump-
tion could be justified. Thus, temperature-dependent
properties, such as diffusion coefficients, remain nearly
constant throughout the tower.

Constant pH value is assumed throughout the process.

The beet cossettes consist of only four main compo-
nents including sugar, non-sugar compounds, water and
marc. The latter is the non-diffusing component remain-
ing in the solid phase only (El-Belghiti et al. 2005).

As the external mass transfer coefficient is two orders
of magnitude larger than the internal mass transfer
coefficient, it can be assumed that the mass transfer
resistance in the solid phase, which is the reciprocal
of mass transfer coefficient, is dominant during the
material transport.
The material transport with axial diffusion was
neglected compared with that of the bulk flow.
Based on the above assumptions, the material balance
over the differential volume shown in Figure 2 could be
written as:
 Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from sugar beet N. Mostoufi et al. 51

dCL;i in which g and o are defined as follows:

Adze ¼ V_ ðCL;i jz  CL;i jzþdz Þ
dt
Accumulation Bulk Flow a
t
x¼ (10)

þ kc a ðC  CL;i ÞAdze  k1 CL;i Adze
z
Inter-phase Mass Transfer Reaction
ði ¼ S; NS; W Þ ð3Þ c ¼ 1  ðb þ k1 Þ
t (11)

Dividing equation 3 by Adze and simplifying yields: Equation 9 should be solved subject to the following
initial and boundary conditions:
dCL;i dCL;i
þa  bðC   CL;i Þ þ k1 CL;i ¼ 0 (4)
dt dz B:C: : Ci; 0 ¼ 0 (12)

(i ¼ S, NS, W)
where: I:C: : C0; n ¼ 0 (13)


V
a¼ (5)
Ae
and 2.2 Juice level control
b ¼ kc a (6) Sugar diffusion plants have a high rate of water consump-
tion which is used as the diffusion water. As was shown
The initial and boundary conditions for equation 4 are previously in Figure 1, all the water extracted from the
as follows: wet pulp, known as press water, is recycled to the process.
In order to know how much fresh water is needed for the
B:C: : at z ¼ 0 CL;i ¼ 0 (7) diffusion, in addition to the press water, it is necessary to
have a control on the juice level in the tower. In this way
I:C: : at t ¼ 0 CL;i ¼ 0 (8) the fresh water flow can be directly controlled with varia-
tions in the juice level. This can be achieved by a
dynamic material balance over the tower diffuser. It would
The first-order partial differential equation (equation 4)
be evident from Figure 1 that the press water stream once
was discretised by an implicit finite-difference method
exits the tower as the wet pulp water content and returns
(Constantinides and Mostoufi 1999) which is not sensitive
to the tower again as the press water. Therefore it is elimi-
to the step size. Explicit methods for first-order partial dif-
nated from the mass balance and the equation in the
ferential equations are not appropriate because the range
dynamic mode would be:
of stability is quite narrow in this approach. The resulting
difference equation is:



dL m Beet ð1  DÞ þ m Fresh water  m Pulp
¼ (14)
Ci;nþ1 ¼ cCi;n  xCiþ1;nþ1 þ xCi1;nþ1 þ bC 
t (9) dt qJuice  A  e

in which the term D, known as draft, is defined as:

m Juice
D¼
(15)
m Beet

A proportional integral (PI) controller is utilised to con-

Figure 2. Differential volume for material balance.
trol the juice level in the tower. If P type controller is uti-
lised, there will be an offset in the process value. This
problem is overcome when a PI controller is used instead.
This kind of controller is slower than a P controller, but it
ensures for the stability and no offset in the process value.
For PI controllers, the equation in terms of the error and
controlling parameters can be written as:
52 Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from sugar beet N. Mostoufi et al.

Figure 3. Summary of resistances encountered during mass transfer from beet tissue to the diffusion liquid.

Z t
Kc
OPðtÞ ¼ Kc  EðtÞ þ EðtÞ dt
tI 0 Sugar diffusion is carried out in acidic conditions in which
where OP, Kc, E and tI are the deviation variables for the
controller output, proportional constant, error and the inte-
gral time, respectively.
3. Properties and correlations
Physical properties of the materials needed for modelling
were evaluated from proper correlations described in this
section. These properties include mass transfer coefficients
and reaction rate constant.
3.1 Mass transfer coefficients
In the case of mass transfer from the solid phase into the
liquid phase, two types of coefficients could be presented,
i.e. internal and external mass transfer coefficients. These
two coefficients can be evaluated from equations 17 and
18, respectively. The resistances to mass transfer are
shown schematically in Figure 3.
Internal mass transfer coefficient (Treybal 2000; Cha-
lermchat et al. 2004; McCabe et al. 2006) is given by the
equation
6De
kc ¼
Dp
3.2 Reaction rate constant
(16)
sucrose can be hydrolysed to produce invert sugars, which
are classified as non-sugar components. The hydrolysis
reaction which is also known as sugar inversion is given
as:
Sucrose þ H2 O ) Glucose þ Fructose (19)
The above reaction has first-order kinetics and is depen-
dent on temperature and pH according to the following
rate expression (Bubnik et al. 1995; Van der Poel et al.
1998):
5670
log k1 ¼ 16:91   pH (20)
T
The values for k1 in s–1 at different temperatures and
pH values are depicted in Table 1. According to this table,
the rate constant is increased with an increase in tempera-
ture and is decreased with an increase in pH. Nevertheless,
its effect on the entire process could be simply ignored
since the whole process is mass transfer controlled. The
Table 1. Variation of the rate constant of Equation 20
with temperature and pH value
(17)
k ( 10–6 s–1)

External mass transfer coefficient (Van der Poel et al. T (8C) pH ¼ 4 pH ¼ 4.5 pH ¼ 5
1998; Bird et al. 2002) is given by the equation 65 2.3 0.7 0.23
70 4 1.3 0.4
75 7 2.2 0.7
Sh ¼ ð1:09=eÞðReScÞ1=3 (18)
 Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from sugar beet N. Mostoufi et al. 53

Table 2. Typical composition of beet Table 4. Comparison between the model output
and the experimental data when 100 kg beet
Composition Weight percent (wet basis) entered the tower
Sugar 17
Non-sugar 2.02 Simulated Actual Error
Water 76.48 Parameter value plant data (%)
Marc 4.5 Juice Brix 18.91 17.27 9
Juice purity 89.4 86.4 3
Juice sugar content 16.91 16.66 1.5
beet diffusion is normally carried out at a pH between 4 (kg/100 kg beet)
and 5.5. However, the choice of an appropriate pH value Juice non-sugar 2.0 1.95 2
depends on the following factors: content (kg/100 kg
beet)

The pH value should be low enough to prevent Juice water content 95.74 101.74 5
(kg/100 kg beet)
microbiological developments in the extracted juice Pulp sugar content 0.21 0.27 22

The pH value should be high enough to prevent (kg/100 kg beet)
sucrose hydrolysis and minimise the corrosion in the Pulp non-sugar 0.08 0.07 14
tower. content (kg/100 kg
beet)
According to the literature (El-Belghiti et al. 2005), the
appropriate pH value for diffusion is 4.5. Therefore, this
value has been used in the present work. the profiles change with variations in mass transfer coeffi-
cients. For the beet given in Table 1, the values of kc from
equations 17 and 18 were found to be 1.4  10–7 for
4. Results and discussion internal and 4.5  10–5 for external mass transfer coeffi-
The model equations were solved numerically for an cients, respectively, and this justifies the assumption made
industrial tower diffuser and the results were compared for modelling. As opposed to the mass transfer coeffi-
with the corresponding plant data. A typical composition cients, the effect of sucrose consumption due to reaction
of the beet is given in Table 2 from which the parameter is quite negligible in the system and it can simply be
C* can readily be evaluated. Input data and operating con- ignored (Van der Poel et al. 1998; El-Belghiti et al.
ditions for the industrial tower diffuser are also given in 2005). Figure 5 shows the sucrose concentration profiles
Table 3. In the industrial vertical tower diffuser, sampling once assuming the presence of reaction and once with
could only be done at the bottom of the tower where the neglecting it. As seen in Figure 5, the two curves have
juice leaves the equipment. Therefore, sugar and non- completely coincided. This can be justified by equation 11
sugar components could be measured only at the bottom in which the value of b is much greater than k1 (b >>
of the tower. Table 4 provides a comparison between the k1). Therefore, it can be concluded that the sucrose reac-
modelling results and actual plant data, where a satisfac- tion has no considerable effect on the concentration pro-
tory agreement has been obtained. files.
Numerous values for sucrose diffusion coefficients have
been presented in the literature (Van der Poel et al. 1998;
Jemai and Vorobiev 2003; El-Belghiti et al. 2005). The
concentration profiles for sucrose are very sensitive to
these values as shown in Figure 4. This figure shows how

Table 3. Operating conditions for the tower diffuser

Parameter Description Unit Value

D Tower diameter m 6
Le Effective tower length m 19
Lt Total tower length m 23


m Beet Beet flow in Tonne/h 100
pH Acidity index – 4.5
T
Temperature K 343
V Diffusion water flow m3/h 65 Figure 4. Variation of sucrose concentration profile with
respect to the value of mass transfer coefficients.
54 Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from sugar beet N. Mostoufi et al.

Figure 5. Sugar concentration versus tower length for two

Figure 7. Concentration profiles versus time at z ¼ 10 m.
cases: without reaction and with reaction.

state value rather fast at z ¼ 3 m, whereas this trend

Variations of sugar and non-sugar concentrations in dif-
becomes more sluggish as the height of the diffusion is
ferent sections of the tower are plotted versus time in Fig-
increased. This is attributed to the fact that the fresh water
ures 6–8. In all these figures, the concentration profiles are
entering the tower increases the solute uptake rate but as
exhibiting an ascending trend. This trend could be due to
the diffusion water becomes more enriched, the concentra-
the accumulation of these soluble substances in each sec-
tion profile has approached the steady state with more
tion. As is observed in Figure 6, the peak in this figure is
delay.
due to the accumulation of extracted sugar and non-sugar
In Figures 9–11, sugar and non-sugar concentrations are
compounds in the very first minutes of the transient opera-
plotted this time against the height of the tower diffuser.
tion. As we know, there is a high amount of concentration
The resulting figures also exhibit an ascending trend but
difference between the cossettes elevating and the water
this time with no maximum. This is simply because of the
going down among the cossettes. This results in a transi-
diffusion water enrichment with soluble constituents as it
ent accumulation of these compounds at the lowest part of
passes through the tower from the top to the bottom. The
the tower in this period. As is seen in Figures 7 and 8, this
change in the ascending behaviour from sharp curves to
effect fades away in the middle part of the tower because
smooth and sluggish curves in Figures 9–11 can be justi-
this concentration difference is reduced and disappears at
fied by the same reason stated earlier in Figures 6–8. From
higher parts of the tower. As time goes on, this situation
a mathematical point of view, the similarity between these
changes to steady state condition in the whole tower. The
two groups of curves can be explained by the fact that in
concentration profiles in Figures 6–8 reach their steady
the first-order partial differential equation represented by
equation 4, the concentration has a first-order derivative
with respect to both time and height. In addition, the

Figure 6. Concentration profiles versus time at z ¼ 3 m. Figure 8. Concentration profiles versus time at z ¼ 15 m.
 Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from sugar beet N. Mostoufi et al. 55

Figure 12. Variation of juice level in the tower versus

time with a proportional integral controller.

Figure 9. Concentration profiles versus height at t ¼ 10

min.

Figure 13. Variation of fresh water flow into the tower

versus time with a proportional integral controller.

in equation 16 are set as: Kc ¼ 15 and tI ¼ 25 where Kc

Figure 10. Concentration profiles versus height at t ¼ 20
and tI are the proportional constant and integral time,
min.
respectively. To have a comprehensive control on this sys-
tem, there should also be a graph representing the fresh
initial and boundary conditions for this equation are the
water flow into the tower. This graph is shown in Figure
same. Therefore, the similarity between these two groups
13. As it is seen in Figure 12, the juice level is increased
of curves would be inevitable.
to its new steady state value in about 20 min after impos-
Variations of the juice level in the tower diffuser versus
ing a change to this system.
time calculated by equation 14 are plotted in Figure 12.
The controlling parameters for this PI level controller used
5. Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from this work:

The model presented in this work was the first

attempt in this field, which is able to predict the beha-
viour of the tower diffuser successfully. The para-
meters that could be determined by this model with
fixed operating conditions include Brix, purity, sugar
and non-sugar content of the effluent juice and also
the contents of the exhausted pulp.

Among all variables in this model, mass transfer coef-
ficients seem to have the greatest effect on the pre-
dicted parameters. Although pH value and temperature
Figure 11. Concentration profiles versus height at t ¼ 70 have great influences on the reaction rate constant,
min. their effects on the process yield can be ignored.
56 Dynamic modelling of the sugar extraction process from sugar beet N. Mostoufi et al.

The control of the liquid level in the tower diffuser

Sh=Sherwood number
will have the advantage of maintaining a uniform
T
=Absolute temperature (K)
flow of the raw juice from the tower.
V =Flow rate of liquid through the tower (m3/s)

The dynamic model could be of interest for engineers
W=Water
in the sugar industry and can be developed into an
operator training simulator (OTS).
Greek letters
6. Acknowledgements a=Equation parameter
The authors really appreciate the help of Mr Eghbal and b=Equation parameter
Mrs Javaheri, the staff of Shirin Sugar Factory, and Mr g=Equation parameter
Maleki, the head of the Qazvin Sugar Factory, for provid- e=Liquid fraction in the tower
ing the experimental data. rJuice=Raw juice density (kg/m3)
tI=Integral time
7. Nomenclature x=Equation parameter

a=Specific surface of the beet cossettes (m2/m3)

A=Tower cross section (m2) 8. References
Bx=Total dry substance
CL,i=Concentration of substances (sugar, non-sugar Bird, R. B., Stewart, E. E. and Lightfoot, E. N. 2002. Transport
phenomena, 2nd edition. John Willey & Sons, New York,
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C*=Concentration in the solid phase (kg/m3) Bubnik, Z., Kadlec, P., Urban, D. and Bruhns, M. 1995. Sugar
D=Draft technologists manual, 8th edition. Bartens, Berlin, Germany.
De=Effective diffusivity (m2/s) Chalermchat, Y., Fincan, M. and Dejmek, P. 2004. Pulsed elec-
tric field treatment for solid-liquid diffusion of red beetroot
Dp=Particle diameter (m)
pigment: mathematical modeling of mass transfer. Journal of
E(t)=Error value Food Engineering 64: 229-236.
i=Space counter Constantinides, A. and Mostoufi, N. 1999. Numerical methods
k1=Reaction rate constant (s–1) for chemical engineers with MATLAB applications. Prentice
kc=Mass transfer coefficient (m/s) Hall PTR, New Jersey, USA.
El-Belghiti, K., Rabhi, Z. and Vorobiev, E. 2005. Kinetic model
KC=Proportional constant of sugar diffusion from sugar beet tissue treated by pulsed
L=Tower length electric field. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Le=Effective length of tower (m) 85: 213-218.
Lt=Total length of tower (m) Jemai, A. B. and Vorobiev, E. 2003. Enhanced leaching from
n Time counter beet cossettes by pulsed electric field. Journal of Food Engi-

= neering 59: 405-412.
m=Mass flow rate (kg/s) Korgul, A. 1989. Mathematical modeling and simulation of the
NS=Non-sugar compounds sugar extracting process. Indian Sugar 39: 273-280.
OP(t)=Deviation variable for controller output McCabe, W. L., Smith, J. C. and Harriot, P. 2006. Unit opera-
pH=Acidity index tions of chemical engineering, 6th edition. Mc Graw Hill, New
Q=Juice purity York, USA.
Treybal, R. E. 2000. Mass transfer operations, 3rd edition.
Re=Reynolds number McGraw Hill, New York, USA.
S=Sucrose Van der Poel, P. W., Schiweck, H. and Schwartz, T. 1998. Sugar
Sc=Schmidt number technology. Bartens, Berlin, Germany.