Processing
Sugarcane processing produces cane sugar (sucrose) from sugarcane. Other products of the processing include bagasse, molasses, and filtercake.
Bagasse, the residual dry fiber of the cane after cane juice has been extracted, is used for several purposes:
- fuel for the boilers and kilns,
- production of paper, paperboard products and reconstituted panelboard,
- agricultural mulch, and
- as a raw material for production of chemicals.
The primary use of bagasse and bagasse residue is as a fuel source for the boilers in the generation of process steam in sugar plants. Dried filtercake is used as an animal feed supplement, fertilizer, and source of sugarcane wax. Molasses is produced in two forms: blackstrap that is not edible, and a syrup that is edible. Blackstrap molasses is used primarily as an animal feed additive but also is used to produce ethanol, compressed yeast, citric acid, and rum. Edible molasses syrups are often blends with maple syrup, invert sugars, or corn syrup.
Traditionally, sugarcane processing requires two stages. Mills extract raw sugar from freshly harvested cane, and sometimes bleach it to make "mill white" sugar for local consumption. Refineries, often located nearer to consumers in North America, Europe, and Japan, then produce refined white sugar, which is 99 percent sucrose. These two stages are slowly merging. Increasing affluence in the sugar-producing tropics increased demand for refined sugar products, driving a trend toward combined milling and refining.
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