IMPROVING PLANTATION WHITE SUGAR/RAW SUGAR QUALITY BY USING A NEW CATIONIC POLYMER

摘要

Production of good quality plantation white/raw sugar at reduced cost is the main aim of all sugar technologists. There is demand for good quality sugar especially from bulk consumers like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, who are prepared to pay premium price for the commodity. The domestic market in India has also started demanding good quality sugar. Reduced dextran, colour and ash in raw sugar will reduce problems in sugar refining, and reduced chemical consumption cost will thus fetch a higher price. To achieve improvements in sugar quality, techniques like syrup clarification, filtrate clarification, etc are being used. However, these techniques require capital investment and increased chemical consumption. Some sugar loss is bound to occur as high purity material is held at a high temperature (80℃) for about half an hour prior to further processing. Sugar loss and increased production costs associated with these techniques may not be economical for obtaining about 20% reduction in ICUMSA colour, ash and other impurities. Similar sugar quality improvements can be achieved with the use of a newly developed cationic polymer, Sucrolor. This polymer, being cationic in nature, can coagulate colouring matter present in cane juice. In addition, this polymer reduces the affinity of the impurities towards the sugar crystals, thereby reducing the quantum of impurities in sugar. We have conducted plant scale trials in six factories located in different parts of India for a period of a week each to study the impact of Sucrolor on the quality of plantation white sugar without any alteration in the manufacturing process except for continuous addition of Sucrolor @ 5 ppm on the cane in sulfated juice. It was observed that there was reduction in the calcium content of sugar by more than 12%, reduction in ICUMSA colour by 15% and reduction in polysaccharides by more than 20%. This means that, by using a new cationic polymer, it is possible to obtain a better quality sugar without any capital investment and at less than half the price of chemicals that are required for syrup clarification.