Sugar Beet Production Process
Leading on from the Sway Treacle Mine myth, I decided to do some research into the production of sugar beets to see if the process can be done on a small scale. As the site is fairly large it may be able to accommodate a small beet plantation and processing area as well as housing. If this could be achieved then this could provide an additional source of employment in the village for people living on the site, and also others living in Sway.
As the area of site available is fairly small, the scale of production will be small scale. This meant that research inot large scale or industrial processing would not provide a simplified process. Instead research was undertaken into small-scale sugar beet farming, such as that done by homeowners or on small holdings. This process of turning sugar beets into a sugar or treacle state is a much simpler but long process.
Further research resulted in coming accross a document produced by researchers in the Netherlands looking into farming and small scale biorefineries that can produce raw sugar, ethanol and electricity.
This method is much more involving and would require specialist equipment, however the production of three different products from one vegetable is very interesting. Electricity from the process could be used to partially power some of the dwellings on the site. However, it is difficult to work out how much power would be generated by this process, and it is also difficult to work out how much space this equipment would need without proper insight into this research.
References:
British Sugar [n.d] The Journey of Sugar: from beet to bowl [online] Available from: http://www.britishsugar.co.uk/Journey-of-Sugar-1.aspx [Accessed 20th November 2015]
Bruins, M et al. [2014] Opportunnities for small-scale biorefiery for production of sugar and ethanol in the Netherlands [pdf] Available from: http://www.dutchfoodinnovations.com/userfiles/documents/kolfschoten-biofpr-2014-biorefinery.pdf [Accessed 20th November 2015]
Good Compainion Bakery (n.d) Farmstead Sugar Project [online] Available from: http://www.goodcompanionbakery.com/farmsteadsugar.html [Accessed 20th November 2015]
Lastoneeating (2010) Ann Arbour Sugar Beet Project [online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GwxLOU2adA [Accessed 24th November 2015]
Lindsay (2011) Making Beet Sugar [online] Available from: http://www.windward.org/notes/notes71/lindsay7120.htm [Accessed 20th November 2015]