Sucrose production

The ion-exclusion process for sucrose purification has been practiced commercially by Firm Sugar (104). This process operates in a cycHc-batch mode and provides a sucrose product that does not contain the highly molassogenic salt impurities and thus can be recycled to the crystallizers for additional sucrose recovery. 

In the developing regions of the world, almost all of the sucrose production is from sugar cane. Production far exceeds consumption in Central and South America and is slightly higher than demand in Africa. Table II lists the 11 major exporters of sucrose that account for 75% of the total exports of world producers. On the basis of the following assumed stoichiometry,... 

Only countries that have total sucrose production levels of 600,000 metric tons would have enough molasses available to provide the feedstock for the ethanol production capacity being considered here. The developing nations that have large sucrose production levels, and" thus large molasses production levels, are listed in Table III. 

The use of sugar cane juice or molasses to produce an alcohol fuel may be difficult to justify economically in countries where all of the excess raw sucrose production (and molasses) can be exported at competitive world prices. 

Sucrose is produced in a high state of purity on an enormous scale—more than 80 million tons per year. About 40% of the world s sucrose production comes from sugar beets and 60% comes from sugarcane. A comparison of the sweetness of common sugars and artificial sweeteners relative to sucrose is given in Table 15.1. Honey, which is a mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, has been used for centuries as a natural sweetener for foods and is sweeter than sucrose, or cane sugar (Table 15.1). To convert cane... 

Fig. 3. The flow of carbon in sucrose production from fatty acid, showing the disposition of individual carbon atoms in intermediates and the final products CO and sucrose. PEP, P-enol-pyruvate.

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