Recovery of Chemicals from Pressmud – A Sugar Industry Waste

N. Partha and V. Sivasubramanian
Department of Chemical Engineering, Anna University, Chennai 600 025

Paper received : 11.4.06 Revised paper accepted: 19.7.06

Indian sugarcane crop cultivation forms an important part of the Indian agricultural economy. Production of sugar has shown a phenomenal increase in the last 65 years. One of the byproducts of sugar industry is pressmud, a solid residue, obtained from sugarcane juice before crystallization of sugar. Generally pressmud is used as manure in India. The aim of the present investigation is to recover protein, sugar and wax from pressmud. The amount of protein is estimated to be 3.3%. The percentage of sugar is about 0.8%. Extraction of wax by solvent has resulted in a recovery of about 12%.

 

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