Marianne McKee, Ronnie Triche, Mary An Godshall and Charley Richard
Sugar Processing Research Institute, Inc., New Orleans , LA 70124
ABSTRACT
Starch is a polysaccharide that arrives at the raw sugar factory in the sugarcane plant. It is released from the plant during the milling or diffusion stage of sugarcane processing. After release into cane juice, starch in high concentrations can cause problems inside the raw factory as well as being carried into the raw sugar and subsequently into the refinery process. If starch is present in raw sugar in concentrations of approximately 250 ppm or higher, problems arise during refining. These include filterability issues, higher phosphate levels in clarified liquor using phosphatation refining, and poor filterability after clarification in carbonatation refining. Many methods exist for measuring starch in raw sugars, but no standard method is in use throughout the international sugar industry. These methods, while oftentimes very accurate, are not rapid and not well suited for use in the raw sugar factory laboratory. Sugar Processing Research Institute (SPRI) has developed a simple, rapid, and quantitative starch test for use with cane juice and raw cane sugar samples. The time required to complete the analysis of the SPRI Rapid Starch Method is 15-20 minutes and multiple samples can be analyzed at once. Very small amounts of reagents are required and the equipment needed is usually readily available in most mill laboratories. This paper will discuss starch and problems it can cause in cane sugar processing from raw sugar factory and refinery perspectives, the SPRI rapid starch method details, equipment requirements, and the analysis of mixed cane juice, clarified cane juice, and raw sugar samples.
Abstract for an oral presentation at the American Society of Sugar Cane Technologists - ASSCT 41ST Annual Joint Meeting – June 8-10, 2011 at the Sheraton New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
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