H. Schiweck et M. Burba, ESTIMATION OF THE ALKALINITY RESERVES OF SUGAR-BEET FROM THE ION BALANCE OF THICK JUICES, Zuckerindustrie, 118(4), 1993, pp. 241-246
From the mean ion balance of thick juices recently published by Schiwe
ck (1991) a relationship has been derived to evaluate the alkalinity r
eserves of sugar beet (shortened ion balance): w'(IB) = 0.92 . w'(K+Na
) - (0.57 . w'(alphaN) + 1.9 . w'(In) + 2.9) mmol/100 g beet or - if i
nvert sugar analyses are not available - with a constant average inver
t sugar content of w(In) = 0.1 % on beet: w'(IB) = 0.92 . w'(K+Na) - 0
.57 . w'(alphaN) - 4.0. This relationship allows to calculate a limit
(w(IB,0) for an equalized ion balance (i.e. for w(IB) = 0) from tareho
use data of different sugar factories and campaigns and practical beet
growing: w'(IB,0) for DELTAw'1 = w'(K+Na) - w'(alphaN) = 3.6 +/- 0.2
Thus, it is possible with insufficient alkalinity reserves (i.e. in th
e case of surplus anions) to predict the approximate soda ash addition
required for alkaline thick juices and to take into account the corre
sponding amount of Na+-additon to the thin juice when assessing the qu
ality of sugar beet (e.g. with the calculation of molasses sugar).