Filtration Process of Sugar Cane

Sugarcane is one of the main raw materials for the production of cane sugar. In addition to the white sugar that can be produced, the remaining orange water, bagasse and filter mud can also be used to produce edible alcohol, papermaking and return to farmland as fertilizer. The filtration process of cane sugar is sugarcane pre-treatment - juice extraction - clarification and purification - evaporation and concentration - Filtration - crystallization & honey separation - drying & packaging.

1. Sugarcane Pre-treatment

The sugarcane must pass the quality inspection before being weighed into the factory. After that, the sugarcane is chopped into filaments and flakes with a tearing machine, and then the sugarcane material is dispersed and flattened with a breaker to facilitate the reel pressing. In order to prevent the press from being damaged by iron blocks, the iron must be removed before pressing.

2. Juice Extraction

Use a squeezer to squeeze out the sugar juice from the sugarcane. A certain amount of osmotic water is added during the pressing process to dilute the thicker raw juice in bagasse to extract more sugar. The squeezed mixed sugarcane juice is filtered with a trommel to filter bagasse bran, and then the sugarcane juice is prelimed.

3. Clarification and Purification

The squeezed sugarcane juice still contains many impurities and needs to be clarified and filtered. Commonly used clarification methods include lime method, sulfurous acid method, and carbonic acid method. The clear juice after clarification enters the clear juice tank, and the mud juice is sent to the vacuum suction filter for filtration processing. The filtered juice enters the clear juice tank, and the filtered mud can be used as fertilizer.

4. Evaporation and Concentration

Since the clean juice after cleaning treatment contains a lot of water, if it is sent directly to crystallization, a lot of steam will be consumed. This not only consumes energy, but also prolongs the cooking time and affects the quality. Therefore, it must be processed by evaporation and concentration before crystallization.

5. Filtration

The sugar juice is evaporated and concentrated to make a sugar syrup. At this time, the sugar syrup precipitates out due to the increase in the concentration of non-sugar components. In order to ensure the high purity of the sugar, filtration is required. Generally, a security filtration system consisting of the Stainless Steel Bag Filter Housing and Filter Bag with 1 micron rating is adopted.

6. Crystallization & Honey Separation

Crystallization is to continue to concentrate the sugar syrup until the crystals are precipitated and boil it into a massecuite. In order to obtain white granulated sugar, the molasses must be separated from the massecuite. The white sugar crystals and molasses are separated by a centrifugal honey separator. In order to improve the recovery of sugar, the molasses is usually re-dissolved.

7. Drying & Packaging

The temperature and moisture content of the white sugar from the honey is still relatively high, so it needs to be dried and cooled. The white granulated sugar is transported to the packaging room by vibration. During the conveying process, there will be a sorting screen to classify the crystals. The crystals that do not meet the standard are collected and remelted, and the standard white sugar is packaged and stored.