Abstract

DIEZ, Oscar A.; SALAZAR, Romina A.; RUSSO, Marcos N.  and  RUIZ, R. Marcelo. Iron balance in the manufacturing process of sugar. Rev. ind. agric. Tucumán [online]. 2018, vol.95, n.1, pp.13-19. ISSN 1851-3018.

Sugar produced for direct consumption or as a raw material for the production of other foods is subject to the control, mainly of the international food industry, of various heavy metals, including iron. The local regulation (Argentine Food Code) do not establish a maximum concentration allowed for it, but its presence in values higher than the specifications of the most demanding buyers may limit the export of such products. On the other hand, the presence of iron in the different points of the process confirms the occurrence of the corrosion phenomenon, responsible for the breakage and wear of equipment, pipes and accessories, sometimes generating unscheduled stops in production. Monitoring at different points of the sugar manufacturing process (defibrated cane, first pressure juice, bagasse, mixed juice, clear juice, lime, sugar liquour and molasses) in a sugar mill of the province of Tucumán during a harvest period, through the iron determination by photocolorimetry, allowed to solve a mass balance for the factory under study, corresponding to a daily milling of 12,000 t of cane, distributing the materials according to the historical values corresponding to the last 5 harvests. For a better interpretation, the sugar scheme was divided into three blocks: juice extraction, physical-chemical treatment and evaporation and vacuum pans, in order to evaluate the changes occurred in each of them and at a general level of the iron contents during sugar cane process. The result of this study, expressed as the difference between the iron contained at system input and output flows, showed a negative value that reflects an average contribution to the process output flows of 16.5 g of iron per ton of cane processed. This type of analysis can help define the type of maintenance to be applied, especially during non harvesting period, in order to minimize the presence of the metal under study in the final product and avoid interruptions during processing.

Keywords : sugar quality; iron; corrosion; equipment wear.

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