Introduction to Cane Sugar Technology

Book excerpt: Introduction to Cane Sugar Technology provides a concise introduction to sugar technology; more specifically, cane sugar technology up to the production of raw sugar. Being intended originally for use in a post-graduate university course, the book assumes a knowledge of elementary chemical engineering as well as adequate knowledge of chemistry. In the field of sugar manufacture itself, the object of the book is to place more emphasis on aspects which are not adequately covered elsewhere. In accordance with this objective, attention has been concentrated mainly on processes and operation of the factory, and description of equipment is made as brief as possible, with numerous references to other books where more detail is available. The emphasis on operation rather than equipment has also been prompted by observation of quite a few factories in different countries where good equipment is giving less than its proper performance due to inefficient operation and supervision. The book is confined to the raw sugar process, which has been the author's main interest. Refining is discussed only to the extent required to explain refiners' requirements concerning quality of raw sugar.