During our latest BioBIGG conference in Anklam, Germany, we had the opportunity to attend a great tour at the Anklam sugar factory. The factory is an excellent example of a sustainable sugar production, where the whole sugar beet is utilised for production of white sugar and bio ethanol. The production is flexible and can thereby be adjusted to the current marked prices for white sugar and bioethanol.
The byproducts from the main production is utilized in many ways. The beet-pulp or ‘schnitzel’ are used as feed pellets, pressed and sold for silage or directly as fodder. The leftover amount is used in a biogas production at the sugar factories own biogas plant. Both the bio ethanol and bio methane are used and sold as sustainable fuels. The sugar factory’s company policy focuses on economical, sustainable and environmental supply chains – from beet supplier to the end user.
In 2019 the sugar factory handled approx. 1.4 million tons of sugar beets collected within a 120-day campaign. The sugar beets was processed into approx. 130.000 tons of white sugar, 70.000 m3 of bio ethanol, 25.000 tons of melasse, 20.000 tons of vinasse, 30.000 tons of pellets and 90.000 tons of beet pulp for biogas and animal feed. The sugar beets had a sugar content of 17.9%, whereof approx. 52 % of the sugar content was extracted and processed into white sugar.
Read more about the sugar factory in Anklam here: https://zuckerfabrik-anklam.de/