Electro-clarification of clarified juice to minimise evaporator scale

The removal of silicic acid, calcium phosphate and the sesquioxides is esse ntial for the production of high grade raw sugars. Silicic acid and calcium oxalates are the major compounds causing hard and difficult to remove scal e in evaporators. This study investigated the extent to which scale forming ions could be removed from clarified sugarcane juice by electro-coagulatio n (electro-clarification) using a novel Kaselco reactor fed with DC current . Observations from the study indicate that electro-coagulation can remove es sentially all the silica, reduces Ca, P, Mg and Al although to a lesser ext ent and adds some iron to the treated juice. The direct operating cost of a n electro-coagulating unit was estimated at <0.02 cents per pound of raw su gar.