Innovations in clarification in the sugar industry

CARB 102

Mary An Godshall, godshall@srrc.ars.usda.gov, Marianne McKee, mmckee@srrc.ars.usda.gov, Ronald Triche, rtriche@srrc.ars.usda.gov, and Charley Richard, crichard@srrc.ars.usda.gov. Sugar Processing Research Institute, 1100 Robert E. Lee Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70124
Clarification is a critical unit operation in sugar manufacture. This is true for the manufacture of raw sugar from sugarcane juice, refined sugar from raw sugar, and beet sugar from sugarbeets. Traditional lime clarification has been in use from the earliest days, but today, with greater demands for quality, newer processes are being examined. The purpose of clarification is to remove fine particles, turbid and colloidal material. Very good clarification, with the use of some adjuncts, such as flocculents, has the added benefit of removing significant amounts of color. Aluminum-based compounds may provide potential improvement for clarification. These have a long history of use in purification in other industries and are primary chemicals used to treat drinking water. We report a series of laboratory and mill experiments using cationic aluminum polymer blends with polyamine. These compounds showed dramatic improvements in removal of turbidity, color and polysaccharides during traditional lime clarification.