Sugar cane extraction Flashcards
What is sugarcane?
a monocotyledon
What is bagasse used to make?
furniture and can be burnt and used as a source of energy
What are the steps in sugarcane extraction?
harvesting and cutting
crushing and milling
clarification
filtration
evaporation
crystillization
Centrifugation
What happens during harvesting and cutting?
sugarcane is reaped and delivered to the factory
placed on feeder tables and cut with knives
What happens during crushing and milling?
cane stalks are crushed using large rovers and milled.
milling is when water is sprinkled on the crushed cane to dissolve anu sucrose left in it.
What happens during clarification?
lime water/ calcium hydroxide is added to the juice.
this precipitates out any dissolved impurites
It also neutralizes the juice and prevent sucrose from breaking down into fructose and glucose
What happens during filtration?
The mixture and precipitate pass through the rotary filter and the clear juice is extracted.
the mud is washed to get rid of any sucrose left.
it is then taken back to the fields and used as fertilization
What happens during evaporation?
the dilute juice passes through a set of boilers and succesively reduced temperatures.
This removes excess water and concentrates the juice.
This is also known as vaccum distillation
What happens during crystllization?
The syrup is crstillized in a vaccum pan
this prevents charring and crystillization
charring and crystillzation would result is lower yields
a combination of sugar crystals and molasses also known as massecuite is produced in thi step
What happens during centrifugation?
The sugar crystals and molasses are seperated.
The centrifuge basket has small holes that allows the molasses to pass through and the sugar crystals stays in the basket.
What are some products of sugar cane?
bagasse
molasses
candy
brown and white sugar
rum
sweeteners
