NEW FINDINGS WITH THE USE OF HOP PRODUCTS IN THE SUGAR-INDUSTRY

During the 1996 beet campaign hop-bose extract was again used in sever al factories in full plant scale to reduce bacterial activity in sugar beet extraction. By dosing hop-base extract periodically al mid tower position in amounts of 10 g per ton of beet, the lactic acid content of raw juice was reduced to 400 mg/kg raw juice, without severe influe nce on the fermentation in the upper part of the tower. The dry substa nce of pressed pulp was increased to 30% by a residual fermentation. R apid dosing with high actual concentration, as well known from formali n, is also advantageous for hop extract. Existing devices in Austrian factories must be improved accordingly in the future. In an aerobic tr ough diffuser with rather low presswater temperatures it was necessary to use 25 g hop-base extract per ton of beet to achieve a similar res idual lactic acid concentration. Under these temperature conditions on ly formalin was able to inhibit bacterial acitvity completely. In cont rast to the reduction of lactic acid, especially nitrite formation cou ld be avoided, and acetic acid formation which is typical of aerobic e xtraction equipment was largely reduced, In case of acetic acid and ni trite, base extract was more effective than a combination of a dithioc arbamate product, an iodophore product and chloride of lime. Investiga tions on the fate of hop extracts showed that values in the products s ugar, molasses and pulp are undetectable or uncritical, even under sho ck-dosing conditions.