Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria

Material and methods. Sugar beet pulp and thick juice, as a semi product from sugar beet, were fermented. The efficiency of the process was assessed using two Saccharomyces cerevisiae preparations – Ethanol Red, Fermiol. Fermentation was run for 72 h at 30°C. Quality of produced raw distillates was evaluated using the GC method.

Results. The research on fermentation processes showed that sugar beet pulp let obtain higher ethanol yield – 87% of theoretical than sugar beet thick juice – 84% of theoretical, both for Ethanol Red and Fermiol yeast preparations. Moreover, it was exhibited that the increase of sugar concentration in the fermentation medium obtained from thick juice, statistically importantly influenced ethanol yield decrease, for both yeast preparations. The distillates’ quality analysis showed the influence of raw materials and microorganism used for fermentation on pollution degree. Distillate obtained from thick juice was characterised with the lowest by-products content after fermentation with Ethanol Red.

Conclusions. The results make additional possibilities for sugar beet utilization in distillery industry and new markets using production surpluses both for sugar beet and its semi-product – thick juice.