MEASURING SUGAR LOSSES IN BRAZILIAN MILLS

摘要

Brazilian mills produce 14.4 billion liters of ethanol and 24.2 million tons of sugar per year. Many factors affect industrial efficiency, but the losses of sugar are very significant. Without measuring the losses, it is impossible to control and to manage the factory with high efficiency. The main losses measured in Brazilian mills are the amounts of sugar in sugarcane wash-outs, filter cake, barometric column and residual waters. During the last harvest season, the losses varied from 0.06 to 1.05%of sugar in sugarcane wash-outs, 0.19 to 2.60% in filter cake, 0.01 to 1.49% in barometric columns, 0.025 to 1.78% in residual waters and 2.5 to 8.0% in bagasse (extraction). Data is presented on sugar destruction at evaporators (pre-evaporation to finalsyrup), where there are losses up to 3.5% of the sugar in cane.