The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1916-10-13
CLARIFICAII0NlS
.IM3ORTANTPROCESS
Aim Of Sugar House Men Must
Be To Make Better y
IA Product .Es,
improvement That Merely Elm
llnates Error Not Enough, Says
E. W. Kopke n

~ Thu rruort of Ernst W. Kopke,
chairman Of the committee on cl0riliea-
tion aud filtration, ready yesterday at
the Sugar Mill Engineers CoIvention,
contained very complete analysis Of
the subject. In part, he said: iswe
are locking for conditions fundamcnt-
ally better, not for the refinement Of
,ssUrs," and John Wuterhouse said
Yesterday that this epitomfzes mill
Trcctise. Mr.. Kopke's report hits
( straight OF, very important matter.
The report Continues: =.
eve must understand the chances
for Improvement and the present fadlts
before that true interest and cnthusi.
astic study of the problems can reason
ably be expected which win place this
phase of the industry on a higher
flare. We have seen such interest," ap-
piled to the mills, with the consequent
Improvement in extraction. but We
have not seen it in the boiling houses
except in relatively rare instances.
Most Interesting
"FEfortunately the boiling house
processes are not very interesting, but
are slow, and the materials dealt with
do not seem to change appearance very
greatly, and ii seems a common impress
sion that the molRsses is simply re.
duced down to q certain point. As q
matter of fact, the operations after the
juice is concentrated are more interest.
! ing than any others involved in the
manufacture of sugar, and the possibil-
ties of Improvement here are very
great in most cases
Qualification is largely matter of
''"rsonal interest, and it is assumed
that the right kind Of personal interest
will bring about sound knowledge of
the subject by study and experiment.
iEg, and effect such changes as may be
pecessary for the realization of better
results.
''More attentior~is now being paid
20 the increase of purity .gnined by
Qualification. This relative gain does
not necessarily denote the efficiency of
the process, as variations in the quail
ity of the material under treatment
affect this figure considerably, but the
cain in purity at this stage has sub.
stantial effect On' the recovery of
sugar.
Effect of Non Sugars
"It is very evident that the purity
of the liquor before capitalization is
very important, aud from a purely me-
chanical standpoint there is good
chance yet for Improvement here, The
greater relative amount of non.sugars
in syrup of low purity means chat
these impurities will take out as losses
a greater quantity of sucrose than is !
the case if the purity be higher, as
suming the mOlasses to be reduced to
the same point in each case.
"Clarifcation is largely a meehan.
ical proposition, and this phase Of .
sugar should have the |
very best of attention from the engi-
neers. There is sure to be some very |
marked improvement in the methods |
of Qualification in sugar factories, and |
"" should fully appreciate the value
of such advances and the Significance
in terms of Increased sugar production.
Intricate Process l.
ut appears to be the impression
held by many that the removal of the
psolnble matter from the Juice finishes
the job of Qualification, and in prac.
tise this is generally the case. The re.
liners must think that we do rather
poor job of clarifying and such is the
Ease. We do. not have to go further
with the process Of removing insoluble
Impurities while the refners do but 1t
s certain that the raw sugar producer
suffers heavily from the presence in the
concentrated liquor Of insolpble mat.
Ter which can not be removed by our
methods of treating Juice.
In the form of scale, this precipita.
ion of impurities II interesting Ito the
engineer, but IL is by no means all de.
lOsited on the heating surfaces as may
De judged by the removal of one and
,De-half to three per cent of the weight
# ,molasses as sludge. Melting a first
rade raw sugar enables surprisingly
arge amount of ipsoluble matter to be
emoved showing that these impurities
Idhere to the crystals.
'low Capitalization !
"a much larger quantity can be re.
noyed from the low grade sugars. If
! first mnsseeuite be subjeeted to slow
and at the same time be
exposed to the maximum of quantity
# molasses which will permit the de.
fred polarization being obtained, il
will be found that much more insoluble
natter had adhered to the crystals
han is the case when slow develop,
nent of the grain is avoided and the
mother liquor Is kept as clean as pos.
IDLE.
"If it is desired to work in the
greatest possible amount of molusses
With the first massecuites, it should be
understood that this means high con,
animation Of the resulting sugar with
nsOluble matter aud high ash ratio.
n such practise it would be better to
larify the molasses before exposure to