Enzymatic pre-treatment of raw sugar beet juice using pectinase to improve the conventional purification process

Purification is one of the main step in the sugar production, in which the purity of the raw juice increases by elimination of impurities. In this study, the efficiency of pectinase enzyme was studied to remove the pectic substance and improve the quality of raw sugar beet juice. Therefore, the effect of enzymatic pre-treatment in combination with lime treatment (4-20 kg/m3) on purification indexes (viscosity, turbidity, color, purity and colloid concentration and total proteins) was investigated. The results showed that the combination treatment significantly reduced the viscosity in comparison with the conventional purification process. The removal efficiency of colloidal and proteins was also facilitated by enzymatic treatment. In addition, the results showed that the improving of purity was approximately equal in the combined treatment of 8 kg/m3 with lime treatment of 20 and 30 kg/m3, and did not show significant differences (P 50%) and save the cost of sugar production.