Measurement of Morphological Characteristics of Raw Cane Sugar Crystals Using Digital Image Analysis

Raw cane sugar is one of the most important product in the sugar industry and is the main raw material for the white sugar production. Morphological and physical properties of this product might influence the final white sugar. For instance, the behavior during centrifugation, transport and storage is related to the characteristics of these crystals. The object of this study was to determine the morphological factors in raw cane sugar using digital image processing. For this purpose, two sets of imported and domestic raw cane sugars were collected and different factors related to the area size, perimeter, squareness and crystal count were determined. The results showed that the mean area for the imported sets of raw sugars was 154.1994 pixel while for the domestic sets was 220.6249 pixel. This parameter reflects the size of crystals. Perimeter and squareness characteristics and count of crystal in 0.5 g sample were also demonstrated. The results of this study demonstrated that digital image processing technique might be regarded as a useful way to determine the physical and morphological characteristics of different raw sugar crystals