SUGARCANE
Sugarcane, with its high fibre and carbohydrate content constitutes an important
renewable source of energy. During its long growth period of 10 to 16 months this
plant converts good amount of solar energy into sugar and cellulose and is considered
to be one of the most energy efficient crops in that the energy provided by the biomass
of fully grown cane is four times the energy input during the crop cultivation.
Sugarcane sets are planted in soil and the plant develops growth in the course of its
life cycle, during which it converts water and CO2 from atmosphere into carbohydrates
in the presence of sunshine, a phenomenon termed as photosynthesis
Sugarcane growth phase
In the growth phase of the plant, sugar accumulation occurs more in the lower
portion of the stalk, progressively decreasing from bottom to top joints but in a fully
mature cane this disparity is practically absent or negligible. Within the stalk the
internodes are richer in sugar while the fibre content is higher in the nodes as shown by
the earlier studies on variation in composition of these portions. This difference in
composition accounts for two observations:
(a) Cane with short internodes will give high fibre and lower sugar content.
(b) The juice expressed in the last mill under heavy pressure is of lower purity than
the first or second mill
Sugar cane plant consists of three principal portions viz.
(a) The leaves,
(b) the tops, and
(c) The stalk.
The tops and leaves contain very low sugars but are rich in salts in solution as well as
water. The sugarcane stalks delivered to the factories have to be free from the tops and roots
and as such during harvesting, care is taken to remove them so that the sugar rich portions of
the plant are processed. The principal components of the cane stalks to be processed for
commercial sugar production, are
(i) around 70-75% water.
(ii) 12 to 15% water insoluble fibre, and
(iii) sucrose and other carbohydrates.
Besides these, the composition of juice extracted from cane is marked by varying amounts of mineral salts
and organic compounds.
The composition of sugarcane is conditioned by the variety of cane,soils and agricultural factors in
addition to the climate during the different phases of growth of the plant.
At the end of its growth period, the sugarcane crop reaches maturity, during dry weather, marked by
highest sugar build up, when it is considered to be suitable for harvesting.
If allowed to stand in the field after its maturity phase, it starts deteriorating in the sense that sucrose
gets decomposed with the formation of nonsucrose compounds and cellulose.
The over mature cane will thus build up higher fibre with reduced sugar content and it is absolutely
essential for the processing factories to harvest the cane after it attains full maturity
Equipment for Juice Extraction
Harvesters
Tractor cart/wheel tractor
Scale (weighing)
Overhead Crane
Cane Carrier
Cane Knife
Shredders
Mills/Extraction
Screen
Processing
Liming
Clarification
Filtration of mud from clarifier
Evaporation
Vacuum pans
Boiling of raw sugar massecuite
Crystallization
Washing
Centrifugation and Purging of massecuite
Refining
Affination and melting
Clarification by phosphoric acid-liming and prefiltration
Decoloration
Filtration
Evaporation
Cristalization
Washing
Drying
