Improvements in the Treatment of Sugar Solutions.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Sept., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 20th June, 1889-Accepted, 27th July, 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Treatment of Sugar Solutions.
I, JAMES GRIEVE LORRAIN, of Norfolk House, Victoria Embankment, London,
W.C., Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to the treatment of sugar solutions or syrups for the purpose
of obtaining as large a yield of sugar crystals, and of as high quality, as possible.
Instead of evaporating or concentrating the sugar solution in the usnal manner I
drive off the water of the solution by resolving it into its constituent gasses by means
of electrolysis.
In conjunction with this operation I may submit the solution to the action of heat
or of light or of mechanical agitation either simultaneously or alternately with the
action of the electric current.
Or, I may subject the solution to the action of a stream or current of air or of a
suitable gas, and when desired the said stream or current of air or gas may be heated,
and also deprived of moisture by any suitable means, such for example as by reducing
it to a low temperature before heating so as to cause its moisture to be deposited, or by
bringing it in contact with a drying agent either before or or after heating.
Or, I may combine these operations.
In some cases I may increase or aid the formation
and
ог
separation of the sugar by
emploving a current of electricity of insufficient power to separate the water of the
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Treatment of Sugar Solutions.
I, JAMES GRIEVE LORRAIN, of Norfolk House, Victoria Embankment, London,
W.C., Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to the treatment of sugar solutions or syrups and its object
is to obtain a larger yield of crystals of high quality than has hitherto been
obtained by other means.
To attain my object it is necessary to drive off the water from the solution at a
low or comparatively low temperature. In ordinary practice this water is driven off
by boiling; and, in order that such boiling may take place at a lower temperature
than would otherwise be the case, such boiling, when it takes place in an ordinary
refinery, is carried out under a partial vacuum in the well known vacuum pans.
Instead of evaporating or concentrating the sugar solution in the usual manner,
that is to say by driving off the water by boiling, I drive off the water of the solution
by resolving or decomposing it into its constituent gases by means of electrolysis.
I effect the electrolytic decomposition of the water in the usual way, but in order
to guard against any deleterious oxidation of the sugar I prefer to arrange the two
electrodes one above the other in such manner that the anode shall be at the surface of
the solution so that the oxygen given off therefrom may not have to traverse the body
of the solution. If the anode thus employed were a solid plate or mass the nascent
oxygen given off would collect on its under surface and oxidise the sugar with which
it came in contact. I therefore employ a form of anode which will not so retain the

page_text: gas, and I find platinum wire gauze with a mesh of one quarter of an inch or more
very suitable.
When I do not arrange the electrodes as above mentioned I place
them side by side but I enclose the anode in a porous pot of close texture. A porous
pot of a texture similar to that of the porous pots generally used in Leclanché
batteries is suitable.
:
I may collect and save the oxygen and hydrogen given off by any of the suitable
known means of collecting and saving the gases evolved in electrolytic and galvan-
ising baths and I may utilise these gases for lighting, heating or other purposes in
ways which are sufficiently well known to render further description here unnecessary.
When I do not collect or save the gases I find it convenient to get rid of the
mechanically mixed gases which float over the surface of the bath, and the oxygen of
which may oxidise the sugar at the surface of the solution, by means of a current of
air preferably heated to a temperature not exceeding say 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
This current of air serves also to increase the evaporation of the water of the solution.
When such a current of air is employed it is advantageous to box in the bath con-
taining the solution, and also to dry the air before it is driven over the surface of the
solution. This may be effected by passing the air over a drying reagent, or by
cooling it to a low temperature before heating it or bringing it in contact with
the solution.
I may obtain a more rapid effect by combining the electrolytic method described
above and the ordinary method of evaporation by means of boiling. When I employ
this combined method I prefer to maintain the temperature of the solution under 150
degrees Fahrenheit. This combined method is very advantageous as compared with
the ordinary method of simply boiling in vacuum pans.
I may also combine the electrolytic method of treatment described above with any
of the convenient known methods of producing the desired concentration or evapora-
tion by subjecting sugar solutions to the action of a stream or current of air. This
is also a very advantageous method as compared with the said known methods. In
this case also I prefer to keep the temperature of the solution, if heated air be
employed, under 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
may apply my invention not only to the ordinary solutions of the refinery but to
the raw juice.
By means of a suitable oxy-hydrogen burner the collected gases herein before
referred to may be utilised to heat either the solution in the bath or the air passed
over or through the solution.
A convenient way of keeping the anode at the surface of the solution is to attach
it to a float. If the surface of the solution is of large extent as compared with the
size of the anode I prefer to employ two floats joined by a rod or wire, the anode
being attached to this rod or wire. In this case the floats cannot collect oxygen on
their under surfaces as they are apart from the anode. On the other hand if the
surface of the solution be of small extent as compared with the size of the anode I
prefer to make the float wedge shaped with the point of the wedge directed down-
wards so that bubbles of oxygen cannot be easily retained on the under surface of
the said. float. It is better however to have the surface of solution larger than the
anode so that the floats may be away from the anode altogether. When the anode.
is thus floated it is placed in circuit by means of flexible conductors.
I have mentioned the placing of the anode within a porous pot. I do this for
the purpose of preventing any sugar oxidised by contact with the nascent oxygen
at the anode from mingling with the mass of the solution. The solution in the porous
pot can afterwards be discarded.
There are certain points mentioned in my provisional specification which I have
not referred to in this my complete specification.. I do not consider these points
of sufficient value to merit further reference here. I lay no claim to them.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The improvement in the treatment of sugar solutions consisting in the process

page_text: of driving off the water by resolving or decomposing it into its constituent gases
by means of electrolysis substantially as described.
2. The improvement in the treatment of sugar solutions consisting in the
employment of the combined electrolytic and boiling methods substantially as
described.
3. The improvement in the treatment of sugar solutions consisting in the
employment of the combined electrolytic and air current methods substantially
as described.
4. The improvements in the treatment of sugar solutions consisting in the
respective means for preventing deleterious oxidation of the sugar substantially as
described.
J. G. LORRAIN.