SUGAR-CANE JUICE CLARIFICATION. 3 



ment of this process. A sirup attractive in its appearance and 

 flavor will promote sales and consumption in ever increasing quanti- 

 ties in all parts of the United States. 



^ In the large sirup factories of Louisiana this method of clarifica- 

 tion would involve little change or addition to the present equip- 

 ment. In small steam sirup mills in other parts of the country it 

 would mean the installation of additional equipment, but this out- 

 lay of capital would be repaid by the saving in sugar liquor now 

 thrown out or fed to hogs as "skimmings," and also by the im- 

 proved and more uniform quality of the finished product. 



EXPERIMENTAL PLANT. 



^ Before outlining in detail this method of sirup making a descrip- 

 tion will be given of the experimental plant and equipment used 

 in testing the practicability of clarifying cane juice with infusorial 

 earth. The equipment employed consisted of two tanks fitted with 

 steam coils, each holding slightly over 200 gallons, a duplex 4| by 

 2J by 4 steam pump, and an 18-inch plate and frame filter press 

 having about 80 square feet of filtering area. The two tanks were 

 connected by a header to the intake of the pump with valve arrange- 

 ment such that the contents of each tank could be pumped separately 

 into the press. This arrangement permitted one tank to be filled 

 with juice and prepared for filtration while the contents of the 

 other were being pumped through the press. 



OPERATION. 



One tank having been filled with juice, steam was turned into 

 the heating coils and the juice heated to a point just below boiling. 

 The desired amount of infusorial earth was added and mixed thor- 

 oughly with the hot juice, after which the mixture of infusorial 

 earth and hot juice was pumped to the filter press. While this tank- 

 ful of juice was being filtered the second tank was being filled, 

 heated, and treated with infusorial earth so that it immediately 

 followed the first one through the filter press. The process was 

 repeated until filtration became very slow even at a pressure of 40 

 to 60 pounds, showing that the frames of the filter press had be- 

 come full. This general procedure was followed in all the experi- 

 ments. 



EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED. 1 



A more detailed description of some of the experiments follows. 



1 The juice used in these experiments was obtained from a sugar mill. The officials of 

 the sugar company also cooperated in the conduct of the work. In most of the experi- 

 ments the mixed dilute juice was used. The dilution was about 12 per cent, the extrac- 

 tion about 78 per cent, and the average Brix of the dilute juice 13°. In some of the 

 E^n only the crusher juice was used, where the extraction was estimated to be 

 about 40 per cent and the Brix of juice averaged 15°. 



