Estimation of Sucrose Inversion in Evaporators

With the use of high performance ion chromatography, investigations conducted in a number of sugar factories confirmed that glucose/brix or glucose/chloride could be used as a marker to localise and estimate sucrose inversion in evaporators, and establish its contribution to the undetermined loss. In most cases sucrose degradation took place in the later effects, where evaporator tubes were found blocked with hard scales of silica. In others it occurred at the front end of the evaporators where most of the evaporation was done. Sucrose loss ranged from 0,18 to 0,75% sucrose, or 0,015 to 0,081 sucrose % cane, representing 5 to 85% of the undetermined loss.