MXPA96001323A - Product to stabilize the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and application method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a product for stabilizing sucrose contained in sugar cane and method of application having pH stabilizing, biochemical, bactericidal, enzymatic, detergent and sanitizing activity consisting of an aqueous solution comprising an active agent, a carboxylic acid or derived salt, a short chain alcohol, terpene, surfactant and a buffer solution whose purpose is mainly to avoid the inversion of saccharo

Description

PRODUCT TO STABILIZE THE SUCROSE CONTAINED IN THE SUGAR CANE AND APPLICATION METHOD.

BACKGROUND Sucrose is the most important of the sugars, being its primary source the sugar cane and the beet. A large variety of granulated or liquid sugars, honey or invert sugars and brown sugar are obtained from sucrose. (Whistler, R. L., Zysk, J. R. Kirk-Othmer, 3rd ed.Vol 04. 535-555) The process of obtaining sucrose, also known as sugar from sugarcane is an industrial process of great economic importance, because entire geographical areas of various countries depend heavily on that industry.

It is therefore of great importance the inventions in this field to keep your 2 or operation profitable. That is why innovations have been developed in different parts of the integral production process, which range from sowing, cultivation and harvest to the processing equipment to obtain the final product.

In general terms, the yield of the sugar production process is from 9.2 to 25 12.8% in relation to the sugar cane that arrives for processing in a sugar mill.

This yield varies according to the region, the variety of the sugarcane, the equipment used in the production process, the operating conditions, etc.

The purpose of the sugar factory is to separate all the components that are not sucrose from the cane, to isolate it in the form of crystals. In fact, the cane is divided into its different basic components: fiber, water, no sugar and sucrose.

The cane when entering the factory, is subjected to a process of fragmentation and successive compressions in mills, separating the juice from the fiber. To achieve the greatest possible separation, water is applied to dilute the juice retained by the fiber, which increases the amount of sucrose recovered from sugar cane in this operation.

The juice extracted from sugarcane (commonly referred to as sugarcane juice) has around 15 degrees Brix with a purity that fluctuates between 80 and 90%. Therefore, 100 ton. of juice will contain 15 ton. of total solids and between 12 and 13% polarization (pol.): The amount of non-sugars (impurities) in 100 tons. of juice can then vary between 2 and 3 tons.

The juice of sugar cane is acid, opaque and cloudy. By means of chemical treatment with lime slurry and heating, the acidity is neutralized so that, due to the change in pH and temperature, certain non-sugars, mainly of colloidal nature, which are separated by sedimentation, can be insolubilized and precipitated.

In this way the juice becomes neutral, transparent and clean (clarified juice), but only between 15 and 20% of the total of non-sugars are separated.

The residual product of this process is the cachaça (75% humidity), which represents approximately 3 or 4% of the weight of the cane and contains between 1 and 2% of pol.

In the concentration of the juice -process of evaporation to multiple effect- an amount of water equivalent to 75 or 78% of the weight of the juice is eliminated and it is obtained with a concentration of 65 to 70 brix.

About 80% of the evaporated water is recondensed in the different bodies of the evaporator and is used in the manufacturing processes, mainly in the milling of the cane.

The meladura obtained by concentration of the clarified juice, is subjected to evaporation in vacuum bins, to an appropriate degree of supersaturation so that the sucrose crystallizes; a cooked mass (A) of purity practically equal to that of the meladura is obtained, which contains a quantity of crystals equivalent to 50 or 60% of the total solids. The separation of the sugar is the centrifuge throws as a residual product a mother liquor (honey A) whose purity is 18 points lower than that of the cooked mass. If the purity of this is 85% that of honey will be around 67%. The cooking time of a cooked mass of 40 m3 is about 2 hours.

To the honey (A) a certain quantity of meladura is incorporated to make a cooked mass (B) with 73 or 75 of purity. In this mass the crystals represent 45 to 50% of the total soluble solids present. In the centrifugation, the sugar of a slightly lower quality than (A) is separated, and as a honey residue (B), with an approximate purity of 55%. The greater proportion of impurities in this mass decreases the speed of crystallization and the cooking time in the pan takes about 3 hours.

From the honey (B), enriched with meladura and / or honey (A), the cooked mass (C) of purity is produced around 60%. The yield in glasses with respect to the total solids does not exceed 35 to 40% and the cooking time in the tank can fluctuate between 4 and 8 hours. The high concentration of non-sugars, which include substances capable of imparting high viscosity to the mother liquor, makes this cooked dough a difficult operation with very variable results.

To enable the greatest possible crystallization of sucrose, the cooked mass is subjected to moderate and slow cooling in crystallizers, where it remains between 18 and 36 hours.

From the centrifugation, fine honey with apparent purity between 32 and 40% and sugar (C) of small crystals - about 300 micras - and unsuitable quality for commercialization is obtained. A part of this sugar, mixed with enough meladura to form a magma manageable with a fluid, serves as a crystalline nucleus (seed) for the masses cooked (A) and (B), where its size increases to about 800 microns. The rest is dissolved and incorporated into the meladura.

During the production process there are losses of sucrose contained in sugarcane due to the acidity of the juice, the temperature of the juice and the presence of enzymes in the juice.

These losses, known as sucrose inversion, are caused by a hydrolysis reaction that is effected by an enzymatic action or by the acid hydrogen (pH) potential of the sugarcane juice and the temperature of the juice.

The juice of the cane has a natural acidity which oscillates between 5.0 and 5.70 units, which is a propitious medium for the hydrolysis reaction of sucrose.

The result of the sucrose inversion is glucose and fructose in equal amounts, which are minor sugars with characteristics different from sucrose.

This type of minor sugars do not have greater economic interest for the mills. The mixture of these sugars is also known as "invert sugar".

The fructose maintains its liquid state in the process of obtaining sucrose, so it is also known as non-crystallizable sugars.

The other product of the degradation of sucrose either by deterioration in the field or in the factory is glucose or also called dextrose, which has the characteristic of giving high readings of sucrose, which leads to register more sucrose than it really is crystallizable, thus causing economic losses to the mill, to pay for sucrose that can not be recovered.

The normal temperature of the cane juice initially extracted is sufficiently low, so that the investment caused by the heat is minimal. However, the temperature of the juice is increased in subsequent stages of the process, which favors the inversion of sucrose.

In the initial stage the effect of enzymes is the main factor that causes the inversion of sucrose.

Enzymes are presented by the growth and proliferation of bacteria, which are practically unavoidable since sugar cane is a material that drags a large number of foreign agents into the grinding stage, ranging from natural salts of the earth to organic matter and microorganisms.

Some sugar mills use bactericides to eliminate the bacteria contained in sugarcane juice. However, bactericidal products do not act on enzymes or on minor sugars.

The microbial content of uncut sugar cane is variable, being influenced mainly by temperature, humidity and climatic conditions.

Microorganisms can develop on the surface or in the joints of the leaves with the stem, invade erosions of the epidermis or healthy tissues and cause diseases in the plant.

The leaves and trunks of the plant contain bacteria, yeast and fungi. The 0 microbial populations of the cane leaves infected by bacteria, fungus and viruses are greater than those of healthy canes.

The bacterial species that are most frequently found in the leaves and normal stems are flavobacterium, xanthomonas, enterbacter, dseudomonas, erwinia, 5 leuconostoc mesenteroides, bacillus and corynebacterium, yeast and fungi. Some of these are potentially pathogenic species for plants.

The bark of the cane can be injured by the action of insects or crack due to the growth, freezing or burning of the leaves, the exudates that appear or on the surface, or the tissues that are invaded through these erosions, offer ecosystems suitable for the growth of different bacteria, yeasts and fungi. However, in order to develop, they must concur to other factors such as the extent of the physical damage, the existing temperature and the time that elapses between the injury and the harvesting of the cane. 5 It is proven by experiments in the field that the burning of sugarcane leaves can not destroy the bacteria present in the cane.

Enzymes are generated by bacteria, microorganisms and even by the plant itself.

These enzymes act as a crystallizer that accelerates the reaction of the inversion of sucrose.

Rapidly growing yeasts, molds and bacteria secrete the invertase enzyme to obtain the food supply required for their growth and reproduction, because these microorganisms can not directly metabolize sucrose. So the action of the invertase enzyme is formed glucose and fructose, which can be used as a supply of coal and the energy required by microorganisms.

The enzyme invertase is not consumed during the time of inversion but remains in the juice causing destruction of additional sucrose.

To deactivate the enzymes it is necessary to subject them to temperatures of the order of 60-70 ° C for a period of approximately one hour, but in any case only 50% of their activity is eliminated.

The juice of the cane is usually a means of ideal conditions for the growth and development of microorganisms, which when coming into contact with the equipment and suspended solids form slats that adhere to the metal walls giving rise to colonies of billions of microorganisms , which in some cases have the capacity to double its population every 20 minutes, with the consequent destruction of sucrose present in the juice of the cane.

Another sucrose loss of significant proportions occurs when the bacterium Leuconostoc mesenteroides, which has the property of reproducing extremely rapidly in the normal conditions of the juice extracted from the cane by grinding and without heating; It is able to produce large amounts of dextran from glucose and fructose. 5 When the presence of Leuconostoc mesenteroides in the cane juice is in counts higher than 1000 mg / kg (solids), the formation of said dextrans -polysaccharides of high molecular weight- considerably increases the viscosity of the sugar solutions; and during the evaporation the concentration of dextrans increases later reflecting 0 in the stage of crystallization where it causes that masses are obtained of low purity giving rise to disorders in the crystallization producing amorphous sugar crystals, which give a bad aspect from the point of view commercial.

To eliminate the bacteria, the commonly known bactericides are applied, but still there is a loss of purity ranging between 4 and 8% of the sucrose content.

This and the other effects described above greatly influence the economic results of the sugar mill harvest. o These sucrose losses are considered normal since there is no way to prevent them until now.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a product that allows to preserve the purity of the sugarcane juice and stabilizer of the sucrose contained in the sugarcane through the separation and purification process.

A further object of the present invention is to apply a product at any stage of the sugar production process from sugarcane to prevent sucrose from degrading.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a product that reduces the problems of fouling of material in the pipes of conduction and in the equipment of process in a sugar mill.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a product that eliminates the use of bactericidal agents.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION.

The applicant has developed a product and method of application that stabilizes the sucrose contained in sugarcane and that retains the properties of cane juice similar to that of fresh juice as it is processed, which prevents the degradation of the sucrose contained in sugarcane during its process of separation of the rest of the materials of the cane for its bactericidal effects, stabilization of the pH and its activity on the enzymes that cause the degradation process of sucrose.

The product consists of an aldehyde solution in a range of 35-40% by weight concentration, to which a carboxylic acid of one to eight carbons or one of its salts is added by mixing until a maximum proportion of 15% is obtained. by weight, additionally an alcohol of up to eight carbons can be added in a proportion between 5 to 15% by weight and optionally 1 to 2% by weight of terpene with a surfactant to solubilize the terpenes of between 0.2 and 2% by weight and up to 2% of a buffer solution.

The aldehyde can be chosen from the group consisting of formaldehyde, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde and benzaldehyde.

The carboxylic acid is preferably propionic acid or one of the following acids: formic, acetic, propionic, butanoic, benzoic, sorbic or lactic, or some of its corresponding salts, preferably sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and ammonium ions.

The product preferably contains an alcohol selected from the following: 0 methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanoi, hexanol, heptanol, octanol or phenol.

Terpene is a compound of vegetable origin, extracted from sunflower seeds, grapes, lemon or some other citrus.

The buffer solution consists basically of a culture medium of bacteria such as salmonella.

The product obtained is applied in a range of 25 to 75 ppm per ton of sugarcane in process at any stage of the production process by means of a continuous flow meter.

The product can be applied in different stages of the process, for example it can be directly by spraying or other method to the cane since it is harvested or when it reaches the mill for processing, or by means of dosers to the juices of the first 5 extraction , mixed juices or clarified juice.

To make better use of its various effects, it is preferably applied to the juices of the first extraction, although depending on the specific conditions of the mill it can also be applied at other points of the process, and even at several points simultaneously if necessary.

The product exerts a samtizante effect in the possible foci of infection of the general system. This is directly reflected in the increase in the percentage of recovery and facilitates maintenance work.

The effectiveness of the product was evaluated in the laboratory of a sugar mill. To do this, the following experiment was prepared: three samples of the cane juice obtained by milling the sugarcane in eight different operating times of the mill were taken. For each case, the purity of the cane juice and the percentage of reducing sugars were determined, according to the practices commonly used. One sample was left as a control, another was added the equivalent of 35-40 ppm of the stabilizer product per ton of sugarcane, and the third was added 50-65 ppm of the stabilizer product per ton of cane.

Subsequently the two variables were determined again to the three samples at four and eight hours. The results of the experiment are summarized in the following two tables.

The first results correspond to the determination of the purity, that is to say the amount of sucrose that is preserved for its recovery in subsequent stages.

It can be seen that the values of the purity of the samples in which the sucrose stabilizing product was applied, in general terms, are greater than that of the control sample.

With respect to the determination of the reducing sugars, which are waste or unwanted contaminants, the following results were obtained.

In these cases it is also observed that in a general way the amount of reducing sugars that are produced in the samples to which the sucrose stabilizing product is added is lower than that of the control sample.

To verify the results of the industrial purity stabilizer product, an application test was carried out for eight days in a sugar mill with the capacity to process 204 tons. per day and with a percentage recovery of sucrose of 93%.

A continuous flow doser was used to supply the product in a proportion 5 of 40-60 ppm per tonne of equivalent cane.

It was observed and verified several chemical and biochemical tests that the product acted as a biochemical agent in a range of broad spectrum and in periods of up to 18 hours, efficiently inhibited the destruction of sucrose, maintaining its greater effectiveness or within a temperature range of 50 to 95 ° C.

With the application of the stabilizing and preservative product, the purity of the juices is adequately maintained, that is, that the sucrose was not degraded.

It could also be observed that the product acts biochemically on the non-crystallizable sugars contained in sugarcane juice, which can originate mainly when there is lag, deterioration and / or deficient asepsis in the equipment of the batey and milling areas. o The product also showed an inhibitory effect of the bacterium Leuconostoc mesenteroides present in the juices of sugarcane. In addition to interacting with the minor sugars produced by the action of the bacteria Leuconostoc mesenteroides, reducing the viscosity of the masses cooked by transforming said gums, waxes, resins and starches into manageable materials. 5 A detergent action was shown that facilitates the handling of the materials in process and avoids negative interferences in the crystallization stage, achieving a good formation of the sugar grain. These effects represent a reduction in the work and therefore in the maintenance and cleaning costs of the process equipment.

The preservation of sucrose from cane juice as a consequence of the inhibition of the bactericidal activity of Leuconostoc mesenteroides, of the stabilization of the hydrogen potential (PH) in the juice, as well as the enzymatic activity of dextranase on the dextran present in juices, makes the ratio of the amount of sucrose preserved to the totality of dissolved solids in the juice remain more or less stable within a range that depends on the amount of sucrose and the bacterial population present in the medium concerned.

The product develops a sanitizing effect in the centers of infection of the mill, which allows to achieve an additional increase in the recovery of sugar per ton of ground cane, facilitating also a better handling of the materials in the production process, reducing the dead times to act in places that are not accessible to routine cleaning actions.

In this particular mill, 21 to 25 tons of sucrose were obtained in addition to those produced in the traditional way.

The loss of sucrose in the residual juice went from 5.88 to 3.73% and in bagasse from 3.66 to 3.25% with the application of the product and process object of the present invention. With the application of the stabilizer product, the loss of sucrose was only 4%, that is, 4 points less than the current.

Claims (4)

Having described the invention, it is considered a novelty and therefore the content is claimed in the following: CLAIMS

1. A product for stabilizing sucrose contained in sugarcane and application method having pH, biochemical, bactericidal, enzymatic, detergent and sanitizing stabilizing activity consisting of an aqueous solution comprising from 15 to 40% of an active agent, 5 to 15% of a carboxylic acid or derived salt, 5 to 15% of a short chain alcohol, 1 to 2% terpene, and up to 2% of a buffer solution.

2. A product for stabilizing the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and method of application, according to clause 1, wherein said active agent consists of formaldehyde, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde or benzaldehyde or a mixture of some of them.

3. A product to stabilize the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and method of application, according to clauses 1 and 2, where the active agent is preferably formaldehyde in a proportion of 35 to 40%.

4. A product for stabilizing the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and method of application, according to clause 1, wherein the carboxylic acid consists of formic, acetic, propionic, butanoic, benzoic, sorbic or lactic acid. A product to stabilize the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and method of application, in accordance with clauses 1 and 4, where the carboxylic acid can be substituted by a corresponding salt, preferably sodium, potassium, calcium and ammonium ions. A product for stabilizing the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and method of application, according to clause 1, wherein the short chain alcohol consists of methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanoi, hexanol, heptanol, octanol or phenol. A product to stabilize the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and method of application, according to clause 1, where the buffer solution consists of a bacterial culture medium. A product to stabilize the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and method of application, according to clauses 1 to 7, characterized in that the product can be applied to the material in process in a sugar mill at any stage. A product for stabilizing the sucrose contained in the sugar cane and method of application, according to clauses 1 to 8, characterized in that the product is preferably applied to the juice of the first extraction. A product to stabilize the sucrose contained in the sugarcane and application method, in accordance with clauses 1 to 9, characterized in that the product is preferably applied in a proportion of 25 to 75 ppm per ton of sugarcane entering the sugar cane. process in a sugar mill. A product to stabilize the sucrose contained in the sugarcane and application method, in accordance with clauses 1, where 0.2 to 2% of a suitable surfactant is optionally applied to solubilize the terpene.