Brodie, Graham, Harris, Gerard, Jacob, Mohan V., Sheehan, Madoc, and Yin, Ling (2011) Microwave modification of sugar cane to enhance juice extraction during milling. Journal of Microwave Power and Electromagnetic Energy, 45 (4). pp. 178-187.

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Abstract

Sugar extraction from cane requires shredding and crushing, both of which are energy intensive activities. Cane shredders account for almost 30% of the total power requirements for the juice extraction train in a sugar mill with four mills. Shredder hammers also wear quickly during the crushing season and need to be regularly maintained or replaced. Microwave pre-treatment of other plant based materials has resulted in significant reductions in total processing energy. This paper briefly reviews the underlying structure of sugar cane and how microwave pre-treatment may interact with sugar cane. Microwave treatment reduced the strength of sugar cane samples to 20 % of its untreated value. This strength reduction makes it easier to crush the cane and leads to a 320 % increase in juice yield compared with untreated cane when cane samples were crushed in a press. There was also a 68 % increase in Brix %, a 58 % increase in total dissolved solids, a 58 % reduction in diffusion time, a 39 % increase in Pol %, and a 7 % increase in juice purity compared with the control samples after 60 minutes of diffusion in distilled water.

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