

THE AGRICI LTURAL NEWS 



A mm. lo, 1915. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



THE RATIONAL MACERATION OF 



MEGASS. 



An interesting article by the lair Leon Pallel on the 

 Rational Inhibition (Maceration) of Bagasse in the cane-sugar 

 factory appears in the February issue of the International 



Sugar Journal. 



The writer firsl lays stress on the :essi'j for exercising 



control over the quantity of water employed and its man 

 oi application: he recommends that where higher maceration 

 than In per cent, is practised, it is well to have the work 

 under the supervision oi a special operator, and that the 

 water-supply for the various distributors should be capable of 

 <•■ ■nt r< >l fro) if central poim from which the operator ran 



he work going on at cadi of the several mills. 



He recommends the use of hot wau-r, i.e. having a tern 

 perature of at least so" t,, 85 C, and as it apparently takes 

 some appreciable time for the water effectively to penetrate 

 the megass, he suggests that it is advantageous that there 

 should be a considerable distance between the mills. 



[t is pointed out that passing the waterthrough pipes 

 pierced with holes, such as form the usual installation for 

 the purpose, give: a very uneven distribution of the water; 

 in consequence he advises that atomizing injectors should he 

 used. These should be of bronze with removable and 

 perfectly fitting connexions, all the pieces being interchange 

 able. The useful suggestion is made that when these injec- 

 tors are sen wed into place, they should be secured there with 

 a drop of solder to prevent their being tampered with. 

 This solder is readily removed when it is desired to discon- 

 nect an injector. 



Stress is laid on the necessity for the water being 

 perfectly tree from suspended particles so that no interrup- 

 tion of the injectors may take plate, and in order that there 

 should be no irregularity in the delivery of the water. 



It is desirable that the water should be applied in a verj 

 tine spray, and it is suggested that this may be seemed by 

 working with a pressure of about 3*3 lb. per square inch, but 

 that it is not necessary toexceed this pressure. The pressure 

 may be obtained by drawing the maceration waterfrom tanks 

 placed at an elevation, and it is pointed out that this eleva- 

 tion should not be less than about 26 feet, and may with 

 advantage be even up to double this, namely 50 to 52 feet. 

 Care should be taken to maintain, as far as possible, 

 a uniform level of water in the tanks so that the pressure 

 may also be Uniform. 



The use of a pump is recommended as a preferable 



means of securing uniformity: in this case any undesirable 

 increase or variation in pressure is guarded against by 

 placing a safety valve on a branch pi|>e returning to the 

 pump suction tank. 



It is suggested that low pressure steam may In- used for 

 partial maceration purposes, and that this may be applied by 

 means of the atomizing injectors: the recommendation is to 



use steam in any case only for partial maceration: any 

 attempt to use steam alone v ill result in inconvenience from 

 the cloud of uncondensed steam that will arise from the 

 mills. 



The use of last mill juice lor maceration purposes is 

 discussed, and it is pointed out that this presents some ditti 

 culties owing to the trouble caused by finely suspended 

 particles of megass, and from the fact that owing to the 

 ready fermentability of this juice, troublesome fermentations 

 may be set up. 



CANE-SUGAR MANUFACTURE IN HAWAII. 

 The billowing is a summary of a paper read by 

 Noel Deerr on the status of cane-sugar manufacture in 

 the Hawaiian Islands before tie Eighth International 

 Congress of Vpplied Chemistry, Washington and 

 New York. I li 1 2: - 



The general status "i manufacture may be seen from 



the annexed summary, which i- based on statistics covering 



ovei 90 per cent, of the output of the last five years. The 



figures are true averages and take into account the 



in amounts produced in the different factories. The 



fig - except when otherwise indicated irtrr to perce S - 



of the sucrose in the raw material. 



High. 



Low. 



Mean, 



THE MOLASSES PROBLEM. 

 An important paper 1,\ Noel Deerr on the Cuban 

 Sugar Industry is reproduced in the latest issue of the 

 West J ml inn Bulletin, anil includes the- following 

 observations on the molasses problem in that country. 

 Mr. Deerr argues that the price obtained normally for 

 molasses is | 1( >t reasonably high enough if one works 

 out the value.of. molasses on the basis of its industrial 

 potentialities, which include the manufacture of alcohol, 

 potash (both very important just now), and nitrogen. 

 To these might he added tin- utilization of molasses 

 directly on a huge scale m pig raising (see p. i in of this 

 issue) ami its employment m the manufacture ol 

 acetone used in the preparation of explosives, Mr, 

 Deerr says: 



Connected intimately with the well-being of the cane 

 sugar industry in Cuba is the molasses problem. At the 

 present moment the molasses production in the 1 7,x factories 

 in Cuba is sold at rates varying from L'.\ to I,-, per gallon, 



and this may, on an average, be estimated t<, give the sellers 

 a profit of one cut per gallon. I do not think this profit is 

 reasonable, ami I particularly wish to place before you the 



facts as to the molasses annually produced in Cuba. 



For the crop of 1913-14, the sugar production of Cuba 

 was ven nearlj 2,600,000; at a tow estimate this must have 

 produced 10 gallons of molasses pel' ton of SUgar, or in all 



100,000, I gallons of molasses. With the most modern 



processes of fer nting and distillation, these 100000000 



gallons of molasses could have produced tO.OOO.OOO gallons 



of commercial alcohol ; in actual practice at the present time 

 as ., source of power, alcohol is worth, bulk for bulk, 60 per 



