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. […]

In 1967 three bagasse diffusers were commissioned in Southern Africa. Their performances had not been consistently good due to adjustments to gain experience with the new equipment. However extractions were […]

In 1962 JH Payne in Hawaii noted that diffusion was universal for processing sugar beets, whereas juice in sugar cane was expressed by pressure rolls. Hawaiian factories used batch diffusion, […]

Principles New analytical techniques such as gas or high pressure liquid chromatography and near infrared spectroscopy have been used in the cane sugar industry after their developments elsewhere. Here we look […]

Some basic principles In an excellent article Davies (2018) noted that when one holds one’s hand out to a burning fire one “feels” heat being emitted.  The fire gives out […]

A number of cane payment systems involving cane quality have been developed and are used in industry (Saranin, 1975). The same comments apply to parameters used for assessing factory performance. […]