Pilot Demonstration of Ceramic Membrane Ultrafiltration of Sugarcane Juice for Raw Sugar Production

Supplementary material

Supplementary Fig. S1. Capacity and permeate flux of the ceramic ultrafiltration membrane used in a demonstration plant to clarify limed raw sugarcane juice (85–95°C).

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SupplementaryTable S1

Experimental results reported by different studies that employed membrane filtration to clarifysugarcane juice

Membrane detail / Capacity / Flux (LMH) / Quality of permeate juice / Quality of final product (sugar) / Remark
0.02μm, tubular, ceramic (Tech Sep, France) (Kwok 1996) / 300 t/h / 260–280 / purity increase 0.65 unit, turbidity removal99% / sugar Pol 99.45%, sugar color 600 IU / field trials with clarified juice at 98°C
0.1 μm, tubular, stainless steel (Graver Technologies) (Wittwer 1999; Steindl and Doyle 1999; Kocherginet al. 2000) / 89 m3/h / 170 / low turbidity, high clarity / sugar color 250–300 IU / field trials with clarified juice at 95–100°C
20kDa, spiral wound, polyethersulphone (Permionics, India) (Ghosh and Blakrishnan 2003) / 10 m3/h / 7 / purity increase 0.9 unit, 31% lower turbidity, 47% lower color / NA / field trials with clarified juice at 91–97°C
present results: 0.05 μm, tubular, ceramic (Jiuwu, China) / 5.5 m3/h / 119–142 / purity rise >1.2 unit, turbidity removal >99.96%, color removal >10.42% / 99.5%–99.6% of Pol, 250–350 IU of color / field trials with limed raw sugarcane juice (mixed juice) at 85–95°C
20 KDa, spiral wound, phyethersulphone, and polysulphone (Permionics, India) (Ghosh et al. 2000) / < 0.2 m3/h / 5–80 / purity rise >1.5 unit, absorbance (580nm) < 0.04, transmittance (580nm) > 90% / NA / field trials at 50–65°C with raw and clarified juice
0.02, 0.05, and 0.10μm, tubular, ceramic (Jiuwu, China) (Jegatheesan et al. 2009) / < 0.1 m3/h / 65–165 / purity rise >1.7unit, turbidity removal >99.6%, color removal >38.9% / NA / laboratory trials at 60°C with limed and partially clarified sugarcane juice
0.1 μm, tubular, ceramic (Netzch, Brazil) (Priscilla et al. 2014) / < 0.1 m3/h / 179–253 / purity rise 2.49unit, color removal 36.14%, turbidity removal 99.76% / NA / laboratory trials at 65°C with raw sugarcane juice

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References

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Jegatheesan, V., D.D.Phong, L.Shu, and R.Ben-Aim.2009. Performance of ceramic micro- and ultrafiltration membranes treating limed and partially clarified sugar cane juice. Journal of Membrane Science 327: 69–77.

Kochergin, V., M. Kearney, W. Jacob, L.Velasquez, J. Alvarez, and C.Baez-Smith. 2000. Chromatographic desugarisation of syrups in cane mills. International Sugar Journal102: 568–578.

Kwok, R.J. 1996.Ultrafiltration/Softening of clarified juice: the door to direct refining and molasses desugarisation in the cane sugar industry. Proceedings of the Annual Congress South African Sugar Technologists’ Association 70: 166–170.

Priscilla, D.S.G., D.S.G. Paola, T.D.D.B. Sueli, and C.P. Nehemias. 2014. Pretreatment with ceramic membrane microfiltration in the clarification process of sugarcane juice by ultrafiltration. Acta Scientiarum Technology36: 303–306.

Steindl, R.J. 2001. Membrane filtration technology in the cane sugar industry. Proceedings of International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists24: 3–10.

Wittwer, S. 1999. Applications for stainless steel crossflow membranes in sugar processing. Symposium on Advanced Technology for Raw Sugar and Cane and Beet Refined Sugar Production, September 9–10.

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