Economic analysis and LCA of an advanced industrial-scale raw sugar juice purification procedure

• An advanced raw sugar juice purification procedure is presented.
• Combination of several raw sugar juice purification techniques.
• The procedure is implemented and tested in a medium scale sugar plant.
• Lower consumption of natural gas, coke and limestone achieved.
• Economic and environmental justification tested and confirmed.

An advanced raw sugar juice purification procedure, formed as a combination of several purification techniques is presented in this paper. The proposed purification procedure was implemented and tested in sugar plant JSC “Šajkaška”, Serbia. The goal of this study was to evaluate an economic and environmental justification of the applied modifications on an existing raw sugar juice purification process. Material and energy flows before and after the implementation of the modified purification procedure were monitored and obtained results were compared in a 5-year period. Comparable economic and environmental assessment using Life Cycle Assessment method was carried out. Results indicate that modifications contributed to significant decrease in limestone, coke and natural gas consumption which lead to reduced production costs, carbon footprint and cumulative energy demand of raw sugar juice purification. Benefits due to modifications are more pronounced in the years of better sugar beet quality expressed in terms of quotient of purity.