Potential applications of NIR spectrometry in the sugar industry

In the four most recent sugar beet campaigns, near-infrared (NIR) technique s were investigated with a view to their applicability in sugar production. The advantage of the NIR method lies in the quick availability of the resu lts. Transmission readings were made on technical sugar solutions and refle ction readings on beet brei and pressed and dried pulp. This paper deals wi th the results of the laboratory studies, which mainly focused on the dry s ubstance and sucrose content. The predictive values of the NIR analysis and the analyzed reference values were found to agree closely in technical sug ar solutions during the beet campaign in a sugar factory. But this was not the case with heterogeneous sample material. NIR readings on molasses sampl es in two sugar factories stretching over several years showed the need to dedicate considerable effort on the further development of the calibrations . Ln dealing with solids, specific problems of the uniform state of the ref lection surface came to the fore, which indicated the necessity of suitable sample preparation.