Sugarcane Green and Brown, Dried Trash Effects on Processing: A Preliminary Study

摘要

Currently, there is a dramatic shift world-wide from the harvesting of burned to unburned (green) sugarcane. With increased pressure from public and environmental agencies to further restrict or curtail burning in the U.S. and many other countries, even more unburned sugarcane with extra impurities (trash, i.e., leaves and tops) are expected to be delivered to factories, putting added burdens on processors to deal with and/or remove them during processing. The effect of changing to "green" harvesting on processing has not been properly or fully characterized and, therefore, very few solutions to minimize the detrimental processing effects of trash have been developed or implemented. The effect of different percentages (up to 25% by fresh weight) of green and brown, dried trash on juice quality of commercial sugarcane var. LCP 85-384 are reported in this preliminary study. The pH and °Brix of the juices did not significantly change with increasing amounts of green trash, but increased when 25% brown, dried trash was added. The differences in °Brix indicate that brown, dried trash contributes more than green trash to the factory delivery of soluble solid impurities that have a negative impact on processing. Fiber amounts increased when both types of trash were added, but significantly more with brown, dried trash. Brown, dried trash can still be metabolically active, as indicated by the presence of starch. In general, unscreened clarified juice from juices containing brown, dried trash had more and larger (up to ～220 μm) microparticles than green trash clarified juices. Thermal processing properties are also discussed.