Management of digestate from production of biogas has a great environmental importance. One of feedstock for biogas generation is beet pulp, a side product of sugar beet processing plant. In the paper a closed loop of beet pulp utilization at sugar beet plantation is presented. Effects of soil application of digestate obtained from digestion of sugar beet pulp were compared with standard mineral fertilizers. The field experiment was performed in three successive growing seasons. The studies were concentrated on quality of sugar beets grown under effects of two fertilization treatments—soil application of digestate cv. standard mineral fertilizers. It was found that some important quality indices (weight of single sugar beet root, content of sucrose in root tissues) were higher for beet harvested from digestate treatment compared to standard mineral fertilization (control). The concentration of harmful component (amide nitrogen) in sugar beets grown under conditions of digestate soil application was lower than in the control. It can be concluded that soil application of digestate from processing of sugar beet pulp can be treated as environmentally sound and effective method of its management.
High content of pro-health constituents in fruit and vegetable pomaces has led to their utilization as raw materials in food production. They are used mostly in dried form, which is microbiologically stable and allows their storage throughout a longer period. Nevertheless, some materials of these kind are still undervalued, among them sugar beet pulp, which is produced during sugar production in large quantities, often posing an environmental threat, and has been traditionally used for feeding animals. Earlier studies on chemical composition suggested that sugar beet pulp could be highly valuable in terms of health-promoting aspects. Therefore, in this work, research was directed to prove the nutritional potential of this raw material. Thus, an attempt was made to characterize sugar beet pulp in terms of its nutritional and carbohydrate profile, as well as its health-promoting qualities, with particular emphasis on the effect of the extraction on the content of polyphenols and phenolic acids, flavonoids, flavonols, and also their antioxidant activity, measured by ABTS and FRAP methods. The soluble and insoluble fraction of dietary fiber and total dietary fiber were also determined in the pulp. It was found that sugar beet pulp is a valuable source of nutrients (around 10% protein, 7% fat, 8% sugar, 4% ash), dietary fiber (nearly 70%), and has significant amounts of sugars present as free saccharides (fructose and glucose) and polysaccharide residues (arabinose, galacturonic acid, rhamnose, and glucose). In addition, it is a source of polyphenols, flavonoids, and phenolic acids and has a high health-promoting potential regardless of the applied extraction method. Therefore, we may suggest that sugar beet pulp could become an ingredient for pro-health functional food.
Lycium barbarum L., used in Chinese traditional medicine for centuries, has gained popularity in Europe in the last decade because of its health-promoting properties assigned to phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity. Goji fruits and extracts are often used as ingredients in popular homemade milk cocktails. Within this study, the microbiological stability of the milkshake, with the addition of berries from NingXia Province and their extract, was evaluated using the ComBase® prognostic model. The extraction of dry berries in water at 70 °C for 72 h produced an extract showing radical inhibition of 64.9% and a total phenol content of 63.6 mg g−1. The phenolic compounds with the highest concentrations were in turn: 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, gallic acid, procyanidin B2, and catechin. The milkshake inoculated with the reference B. subtilis was a model for the study of its microbiological stability. Using ComBase®, a microbiological response to the delayed cooling of goji berry extract and the milkshake with the addition of goji berries was predicted and the model’s accuracy assessed. The best-performing models were constructed for extract (Bias factor Bf 1.33, Accuracy factor Af 3.43) and milkshake (Bf 1.29, Af 1.65) in a profile simulating delayed refrigeration (22.5 °C-9 °C-23 °C). Despite discrepancies between predicted and observed bacterial growth due to the antimicrobial effect of the derivatives of goji berries, the models were validated as „overpredict”, i.e., „fail safe”, and may be used to prognose the stability of these products in the given temperature profile.
This study aimed to determine the suitability of sugar beet pulp digestion by-products as soil amendments for maize grown for energy purposes. In a plot experiment, nitrogen fertilizer at a standard rate of 200 kg N ha−1 was applied as a control vs. treatment with solid and liquid digestate fractions. Digestate was obtained from a gasifier processing only sugar beet pulp. Following harvest, heating and calorific values were determined together with the yield and chemical composition of the maize cob and stover. It was found that soil amendment with crude (unseparated) digestate or its two fractions (separated into liquid and solid) produced higher yields of maize cobs and stover compared with the application of standard fertilizer. An analysis of the energy value of the maize plant revealed differences between the studied soil treatments. Cobs obtained from plots treated with the digestate showed higher calorific and heating values than those obtained from control plots; however, maize stover from control plots showed higher calorific and heating values compared with plants from other experimental plots. It can be concluded that by-products obtained from sugar beet pulp digestion can be alternatively used as a soil amendment for maize production in a crop rotation with sugar beet. Among studied amendments the solid fraction of the digestate was found to have the best performance.
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