AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING WHITE CRYSTALLINE SUGAR FROM THE RAW SUGAR MASS
Year: 1884

page_text: DREUIFICATION.
I CARL STEFFEN, Engineer, of N° 1 Jacquingasse in the City of Vienna and
Austro-Hungarian Empire do hereby declare the nature of my Invention for
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING WHITE CRYSTALLINE SUGAR FROM THE
RAW SUGAR MASS and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My Invention relates to an improved method of treating raw sugar masses so as
to produce white crystalline sugar and consists therein that the saccharine mass
produced from the juice of beet root or other plants containing sugar such as are
won in the raw sugar factories are so treated that the said mass or masses is or are
on the one hand reduced into white crystalline sugar entirely free from all colored
molasses or syrup and on the other hand into a very inferior inolasses like syrup
without as was heretofore the case, producing several products from the raw sugar
by repeated crystallisation and reboiling the syrups in order to be able to attain a
similar object.
:.
The saccharine mass from the raw sugar factories contains a certain quantity of
sugar crystals and syrup whereby the quantity of syrup present in the mass
depends on the quantity of water and non-saccharine matter contained in the
said mass.
The object of this present Invention is firstly to reduce the amount of water
contained in the mass as such aro delivered from the boiling vessels by drying or
arefying or other means and secondly to lixiviato this dry or arefied mass in
appropriate lixiviating apparatus by means of a saturated solution of sugar of
suitable purity in such manner that the mass does not form a conglomerate firm
mass of crystals in the lixiviating battery but a pulpy or pap like mass saturated
with more or less of the solution of sugar.
The
The saturated sugar solution is led so long above the fresh charges of dried mass
fed into the apparatus until the non-saccharine matter adhering to the said mass
forms with the solution a molasses liko syrup which is then led off
crystallisable sugar in the arefied mass will on the other hand leave the lixiviating
apparatus in the form of a white sugar crystall pulp saturated with more or less
pure solution of sugar,

page_text: CATE
appropriate apparatus suited for drying or arefying semi-fluid or pulpy masses but
the temperature must be continuously kept under 110° centigrade.
Steam drums (that is cylindrical iron vessels with steam jacket whereby the
vessel rotates around its longitudinal axis and is provided with a stirring device)
through which a stream of air is led or forced give good results.
Masses which have been boiled for a considerable time or when a considerable
quantity of water contained in the same has been evaporated can be filled into
shallow vessels or pans and repeatedly stirred so that the same dry in the open
air-The mass dried in such manner and which can contain up to 3 moisture is
now placed in appropriate disintegrators or other similar apparatus so as to break
up the lumps or balls and is either filled into the lixiviating apparatus in sifted
powdered form or is intimately mashed with the oldest syrup from the lixiviating
apparatus. If the mashing apparatus is well constructed the sifting or defecation
and breaking up of the lumps can be dispensed with.
Vessels of cylindrical or other appropriate form can be employed as lixiviating
vessels and be connected to form a battery similar to the diffusion batteries
employed in boet root sugar factories.
The lixiviating fluid can be sucked or pressed through the battery-in the first
case the vessels can be open at the top and the lixiviating syrup pumped-from-one-
vessel to the other.
The pure saturated solution of sugar can be produced in the lixiviating battery
by pouring a suitable quantity of water onto the crystalline mass which has been
longest in the apparatus and which is almost perfectly pure so that a suitablo
quantity of saturated pure-sugar solution is formed or the requisite quantity of
such said solution can be produced out of the apparatus and introduced into
the-same.--
Any suitable kind of continuous lixiviating apparatus can be employed and the
-lixiviation be carried out in well-known-manner id-est-so-that-the-oldest-crystalline-
pulp or that which has been treated the longest is lixiviated with the purest
solution of sugar whereas the oldest syrup is employed for lixiviating the frosh
mass and leaves this mass in the form of a molasses like syrup.
It is necessary that the previously dried or arefied mass should when in the
apparatus have the form or condition of a more or less moist or pulpy mass.
The white crystalline inass so attained is sucked out of the apparatus is then
dried and sold on the market as white crystalline sugar or is melted down and
worked up into prime refined sugar.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed I doclaro that what
I claim is
1-The process of treating sugar or saccharine masses obtained from the juice of
plants for the purpose of obtaining or recovering the crystallizeable sugar in tho
syrup by subsequent crystallisation by means of drying or arefying the said
saccharine mass, lixiviating the same in appropriate lixiviating apparatus with an
aqueous, saturated solution of pure sugar produced separately and apart from or in
the lixiviating apparatus, in such inanner that the dried or arefied saccharino mass
or mass of sugar crystals is or are prevented from forming lumps and retain or
retains a more or less pulp like condition being saturated with a solution of sugar
and whereby the lixiviating fluid is so long introduced abovo the said dried or
arefied saccharine mass until the said lixiviating fluid attains a syrupy condition
similar to the ordinary molasses which said molasses like fluid is forced out of the
lixiviating vessel by the fluid introduced above the saccharine mass longest under
treatment so that the crystals of the dried or arefied saccharine mass are purified
and leave the battery in the form of a white crystalline pulp whereas the impure
syrup originally combined with the sugar crystals is drawn off in the form of a
molasses like syrup substantially as described in the foregoing Specification.
=

page_text: 2-In lixiviating impure sugar crystals in pulpy form in an appropriato
lixiviating apparatus or battery by means of an aqueous solution of sugar; tho
formation of the aqueous solution which is to serve as lixiviating fluid direct in the
lixiviating battery in such manner that the pure solution of sugar is led into the
vessel containing the saccharine mass which has been the longest time under
treatment and above the said saccharine mass substantially as described in the
foregoing Specification.