The press will be installed at one of the beet processing plants of Western Sugar Company. Until this time, the plant has dumped the chips in a pond where they have been a malodorous nuisance.

In the test installation the beet chips will be run through a miniature diffuser where some of the sugar content will be extracted. The beet pulp that is removed from this process will be pressed in the Vincent press. The press liquor, with its sugar content, will be returned to the diffuser. The press cake will be sold to a feed milling operation where it will be blended with other feedstuffs.

The throughout of beet chips is expected to be about 3,000 pounds per hour. This quantity could be handled adequately with a small VP-6 press. However, the Western Sugar operation will do the job with a VP-12 press. The reason for the oversize press is that the machine was selected primarily to process alfalfa into leaf protein concentrate during the off season. The larger fifteen horsepower VP-12 was required for pressing alfalfa. To make the same machine operate satisfactorily on the small quantity of beet chips, a conversion kit is being provided to cut the horsepower down to five and to cut the speed of the machine approximately in half.

We will look forward to reporting actual performance results of this machine later this year.

ADDENDUM, SEPTEMBER 1996  This press is currently in service at Western Sugar dewatering waste vegetation that is received at the sugar mill.  The press cake is mixed with sugar beet pulp that remains after the sugar is removed. All of this material is dried in a rotating drum dryer and pelted for sale as animal feed.