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CHEMISTRY OF SACCHARIDES
RECOVERY OF SUGAR
FROM PRINCIPAL SOURCES

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CHEMISTRY OF SUGAR
Chemically, sugars and carbohydrates are
synonyms, but normally sugars refer to
sweet, small, soluble carbohydrates. The
word sugar is generally used as a synonym
for saccharose (sucrose).
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The white stuff we know as sugar is sucrose, a

molecule composed of 12 atoms of carbon, 22
atoms of hydrogen, and 11 atoms of oxygen
(C12H22O11). Like all compounds made from
these three elements, sugar is a carbohydrate. Its
found naturally in most plants, but especially in
sugarcane and sugar beetshence their names.
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CHEMICAL STRUCTURE OF SUGAR

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Sweetness in plants is mainly caused by three

different sugars; saccharose, fructose and
glucose. These sugars are either present alone
or as mixtures.

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SOURCES OF SUGAR
Table sugar or sucrose is extracted from
plant sources. The most important two sugar
crops are sugarcane and sugar beets. Some
minor commercial sugar crops include the
date palm and the sugar maple.
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Food Item Total Sugars

(g/100g)
Apple 10.4
Banana 12.2
Pineapple 9.9
Corn, Sweet 6.2
Sweet Potato 4.2
Yam 0.5
Sugar Cane 13 - 18
Sugar Beet 17 - 18
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SUGARCANE
They have stout,
jointed fibrous
stalks 26 m tall
and sap rich in
sugar.
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SUGAR BEETS
A typical sugar content
for mature beets is 17%
by weight .

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DATE PALM
Sugar can be extracted
from the fruits, but this is
only done locally on a
small scale.

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PROCESSES OF SUGAR
PRODUCTION

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HARVESTING
Harvesting is done either by hand or by
machine. Hand cut cane is cut at about
ground level, the stalk is bundled as a
whole. Most machine-cut cane is chopped
into short lengths but is otherwise handled
in a similar way as hand cut cane.
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EXTRACTION
In many factories the cane is crushed in a
series of large roller mills. The sweet juice
comes gushing out and the cane fibre is
carried away for use in the boilers.

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A typical mixed juice from extraction will

contain perhaps 15% sugar and the
residual fibre, called bagasse, will contain
1 to 2% sugar, about 50% moisture and
some of the sand and grit from the field as
"ash".
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LIMING
The factory can clean up the juice quite
easily with slaked lime (a kind of chalk)
which settles out a lot of the dirt so that it
can be sent back to the fields. This process
is known as liming.
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We derive slaked lime, Ca(OH)2, from

quick lime, calcium oxide or CaO, by
adding water. That reaction sequence is:

CaO + H2O Ca(OH)2

At this point, they must make the acidic
juice alkaline.
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The processors heat the juice to 75 degrees

C (167 degrees F), which, combined with
the slaked lime, decomposes the enzymes
that would break down the sugar.
The predominant enzyme is invertase, a
large molecule that splits sucrose into two
monosaccharides - glucose and fructose.
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Invertase hydrolyzes sucrose into glucose

and fructose.
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EVAPORATION
After the liming, the juice is thickened up
into a syrup by boiling off the water using
steam in a process called evaporation.
Sometimes the syrup is cleaned up again
but more often it just goes on to the crystal-
making step without any more cleaning.
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BOILING/ CRYSTALLIZATION
The syrup is placed into a very large pan
for boiling, the last stage. In the pan even
more water is boiled off until conditions are
right for sugar crystals to grow. The crystals
are then given a final dry with hot air
before being stored ready for despatch.
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BY-PRODUCTS
After processing removes most of the
sucrose from the enriched liquid or syrup,
what remains behind is molasses. Molasses
is used in the production of alcoholic spirits,
especially rum.
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The solids that remain after the juice has

been pressed from the stalks called
bagasse are often used as fuel at the
processing site. Bagasse is also used in the
manufacture of certain paper products and
as an ingredient in building materials.
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