17. December 2012

Energy-saving sugar beet pulp drying

Low temperature belt dryer with Conducto belts in the sugar industry: Beet sugar production is a seasonal business. In just four months of each year, large-scale industrial plants process about 1.6 million tons of sugar beet. After the sugar has been extracted, the leftover beet pulp is dried and sold as animal feed.

The dewatering process is extremely energy-intensive, and steeply rising energy costs are driving producers to look for innovative dryer solutions. The AGRANA sugar factory in Leopoldsdorf, Austria, has halved its energy consumption for beet pulp drying by switching over to a low-emission, low temperature belt dryer produced by the company Swiss Combi. This highly efficient dryer exploits previously unutilized waste heat from the sugar extraction process and thus cuts primary gas consumption for pulp drying by half. To ensure that their belt dryers are optimally efficient and gentle to the product, Swiss Combi uses woven mesh process belts manufactured by GKD – Gebr. Kufferath AG (GKD).

Pictures © GKD/Swiss Combi

The full press release is available as PDF download:

GKD Energy-saving-sugar-beet-pulp-drying rest GKD Pictures Swiss-Combi