Contents of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in products of the Serbian beet sugar factory

Abstract

The contents of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined in 6 composite samples of granulated sugar, after product sugar, dried sugarbeet pulp, molasses and sugarbeet pooled from a total number of 250 samples collected at a beet sugar factory in the South Bačka region (Serbia) during the 2005 campaign. The samples were saponified and the PAHs were extracted, cleaned up and determined by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array (HPLC-DAD) and fluorescence (HPLC-FLD) detectors. The determined degree of PAH contamination was quite low: the total content of PAH in sugarbeet, dried sugarbeet pulp, molasses, after product sugar and granulated sugar were: 368 pg/g dry substance (ds), 470 pg/g ds, 74 pg/g ds, 137 pg/g ds and 103 pg/g ds, respectively. Higher contents of residues were found in dried sugarbeet pulp pointing out most probably the favorable adsorption of these organic pollutants to a fibrous substrate rather than a crystalline one.