Integrated, zero-waste biorefinery system for processing various sugar beet products

Abstract

An integrated, zero-waste, multi-product biorefinery system for sugar beets, consisting of a support frame; a raw material intake unit for receiving sugar beet biomass, consisting of sugar beet roots, leaves, crowns, and residual biomass; a washing unit coupled to the raw material intake unit, consisting of a washing chamber, liquid spray nozzles, a washing liquid collection tank, and a solids discharge area; a shredding unit coupled to the washing unit, consisting of a protected cutting chamber and rotating cutting elements configured to produce shredded sugar beet pieces; a juice extraction unit coupled to the shredding unit, consisting of a mechanical extraction chamber with an outlet for sugary liquid and an outlet for fibrous pulp;a juice clarification unit connected to the outlet for sugary liquids and consisting of a clarification tank, a clarifying agent inlet, a solids collection area, and a clarified liquid outlet; a distribution pipe connected to the clarified liquid outlet and having several selectively controllable liquid outlets; a sugar processing unit connected to a first liquid outlet of the distribution pipe and comprising a heating unit, an evaporation vessel, a concentration vessel, and a crystallization vessel; a fermentation unit connected to a second liquid outlet of the distributor and comprising a fermentation vessel, a yeast inlet, a temperature control unit, a heat exchanger, a gas outlet, and a fermented broth outlet;an alcohol recovery unit connected to the fermented broth outlet, comprising a distillation column, a condenser, and a rectification column; a pulp processing unit connected to the fiber outlet, comprising a dewatering unit, a drying chamber, and a pelletizing unit; an anaerobic digestion unit connected to at least one residue outlet of the fermentation unit and the pulp processing unit, comprising a sealed digester, a mixing unit, a heating unit, a gas collection area, and a digestate outlet; a biogas upgrading unit connected to the gas collection area; a digestate processing unit connected to the digestate outlet;and a biomass carbonization unit coupled to a solids outlet of the pulp processing unit, wherein the respective processing units are interconnected by fluid lines, solids conveyors, pumps, storage tanks and controllable valves, so that a processing stream generated by an upstream processing unit is selectively directed to a downstream processing unit for further conversion into a value product.