The impacts of silicon are well covered in the literature, with at least two international conferences devoted to the subject. The International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials (ICSCRM) […]

A previous Blackboard (Lionnet, 2019) looked at the major topics dealt with in 2013, 2016 and 2018 co-products ISSCT sessions. Data from the 2019 ISSCT Congress are now available; they […]

During the 2017 South African Sugar Technologists Association congress Lloyd Evans and Joshi published two papers summarising their work on the origin of sugarcane. These authors used molecular taxonomy, the […]

Tracing back the origins of plants is not an easy task and the findings can often be uncertain or changed as new evidence is obtained. Sugarcane is generally believed to […]

A previous Blackboard described the concept and determination of GI. Here we look at the actual GI values obtained. A few points need to be specified. The information given applies […]

All members of the sugarcane industry make every effort to optimise performances. However, climate, an uncontrollable factor, can have a severely negative impact on these efforts. A quick literature search […]

The accurate sampling of final bagasse (FB) is a difficult problem. No satisfactory continuous sampler has been devised and hand sampling is used. Generally, the analyses of FB samples are […]

In 1948 Spencer & Meade noted that the analysis of bagasse “presents many difficulties not found with juice, sugar or molasses. Bagasse has much insoluble matter,  no homogeneity and evaporation […]

Sweet sorghum was already of interest to the sugarcane industry in 1932. Breeders in North India used POJ 2725 for crosses with various cereals; hybrids were obtained only with sorghum. […]