The smart solution: We use the water contained in the agricultural produce itself for production purposes. This means that a significant volume of the water that a sugar refinery needs reaches the refinery in the raw materials to be processed – the sugar beet. Sugar beet consist of around 75 % water; water which is extracted during the production of sugar. This water is not only used to extract the sugar from the cossettes (the sliced sugar beet), but also for transporting and cleaning the sugar beet. The water used is repeatedly cleaned and recirculated. This system functions similarly in the case of producing juice concentrate from apples, which have a water content of around 86 %.
AGRANA thus obtains process water from its raw materials and, after using and treating the water on-site or in communal waste water treatment plants in accordance with all legal requirements, makes it available to other users. Overall, the AGRANA Group discharges more water than it withdraws and thus has a negative water consumption balance.