Sugar Production from Sugar Cane
Practical Action
TCD
Vacuum Pan
Tonnes of Cane per Day refers to the amount of cane a processing plant crushes
each day and not the amount of sugar produced. Most sugar processing plants
are sized according to this figure which is based on a 24 hour day. However,
many small-scale factories, and some large ones, only operate for part of a day
and in some cases for only part of the year. Therefore care must be taken when
analysing TCD figures as they only represent a factory's capacity and do not
necessarily reflect the actual throughput.
Vacuum (VP) pan describes a particular type of technology used to boil or
evaporate the sugar cane juice. It was developed by the large-scale industry to
improve efficiency but some small-scale VP factories are in operation, especially
in India.
Yields
The yield of gur from sugar cane depends mostly on the quality of the cane and the efficiency of
the extraction of juice. The table below gives some extreme values.
Juice per 100kg of cane
% sugar in juice
Gur per 100kg of cane
High quality cane
50kg
22
10kg
Poor quality cane
40kg
17
7kg
High quality cane has a good juice content with high sugar levels (20%+). Poor quality cane or
cane that has been harvested early may have similar juice content but the sugar levels will be
reduced.
The efficiency with which juice can be extracted from the cane is limited by the technology
used. The simple three roller crushers used by most artisanal producers will never extract more
than 50kg of juice from each 100kg of cane.
Yields are also improved by careful control of the boiling process. Boiling should be completed
as rapidly as possible and the conditions kept as clean as possible.
Mass balance
Weight of gur =Weight of cane x weight of juice x sugar in juice
weight of cane sugar in gur
For the technically minded, the weights of the gur, juice and cane can be related as follows:
10kg gur = 100kg cane x 50kg juice x 19% sugar in juice
100kg cane 95% sugar in gur
Scale of production
Scale
Small
Medium
Large
Cane processed/day
up to 50 tonnes
50 to 500 tonnes
500 tonnes upwards
Type of enterprise
Cottage and small village industry using traditional
OP technology.
Small to medium enterprise using modified
traditional, OPS or small-scale VP technology.
Large industry using modern VP technology.
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