The beet molasses or mother liquor from the crystallization of sugar in the beet sugar industry contains considerable sucrose due to the presence of non-sugars which affect the solubility. It has been shown that the presence of these non-sugars tends to hold more sucrose in solution than if the solution were sugar only. The separation of this residual dissolved sucrose is accomplished by the addition of lime. The insoluble precipitate, tri-calcium saccharate 3CaO.C12H22O11.4H2O is removed by filtration and converted into sugar by treatment with water and carbon dioxide and subsequent concentration. The filtrate is heated to precipitate more of the saccharate. The precipitate is removed by filtration and this final filtrate is known as Steffen\u27s Waste. It contains not more than.3 percent sucrose
