Comparative study on cane cutter / juice expeller and roller model Sugarcane juice extraction systems

Abstract

Two types of cane juice extraction systems have been developed through research efforts to extract sugarcane juice in the small scale sugar processing technology in Nigeria. The first type of juice extraction system that was developed is the roller model where whole sugar cane stalks of 3 to 4 are fed into rotating rollers to extract juice from the canes. The two juice extraction systems were roller cane crusher and cane cutter/juice expeller. About 1000 kg of approximated quantities of sugar cane samples in three replications were crushed to extract the juice in each juice extraction system. The brix of the juice and quantity collected were recorded and weighed for each sample. The baggasse were subjected to sun and oven drying in order to expel the remaining moisture. The weight of moisture left in the baggasse, juice extraction efficiencies and machine capacities were computed in order to determine the process parameters. Results indicated that the cane juice cutter and expeller system which is the new model performed better than the roller cane juice extractor as the new model recorded higher average juice extraction efficiency of about 98% with corresponding higher sugar recovery of about 9% which are comparable with results obtained by the 3-4 sets of multiple roller juice extraction system usually adopted in crushing sugarcane in large scale sugar manufacturing factories. The extraction efficiency of the roller model juice extractor was found to vary from 55-65%. Also, unlike the low baggasse temperature of about 280C obtained with the roller juice extraction system, the baggasse temperature of the cane cutter juice expeller immediately after juice extraction recorded over 650C, therefore was utilized as source of heat energy for the open pan boilers without additional energy requirement for drying.