Brazil is the world’s largest grower of sugar cane. It is estimated that in 2008 alone, Brazil will grow over 300 million tons of sugar cane. Brazil takes sugar cane very seriously indeed, and has poured many millions of dollars into research and development for better and higher sucrose strains of sugar cane. In 1999, the Brazilian government even commissioned a study to sequence the sugar cane genome, a project that took four years and was finished in 2003. Though this was an expensive and time consuming project, it was more than worth it when one considers that Brazil exports over two billion United States dollars worth of sugar every year, and that its sugar ethanol exports are also booming.
A large portion of sugar cane is turned over to production of sugar, especially VHP raw sugar, another Brazilian invention, but a great portion is also used in the production of sugar ethanol, which is a source of bio-fuel, and which has become the second largest source of energy in Brazil. Global demand for ethanol is increasing exponentially, and as a result Brazil is constantly enlarging its sugar cane growing and processing capabilities.
Growing Sugar Cane In Brazil
Before planting, the field is normally left bare for a few weeks to allow the soil to regenerate. High quality soil helps greatly in the production of high sucrose sugar cane. The soil is then tilled, and sugar cane is prepared for planting. Sugar cane is planted in ’setts’ – 10 to 15 cm long lengths of mature young sugar cane which have been cut to length. These setts are put into the furrows, covered with soil and fertilized, and then left to grow. It takes several weeks for them to begin to sprout, and the growing cycle of sugar cane is normally between twelve to sixteen months. During this time the cane needs a great deal of water, and must also be protected from pests and disease.
Sugar cane in Brazil is grown mostly in one of two main areas. The largest of these is located in the center south region of the country, in and around the state of Sao Paulo. The terrain in this region of Brazil is relatively flat, the climate is temperate, and the soil is rich. These factors all make for excellent sugar cane growing conditions. The second region is in the north east, in and around the states of Algolas and Pernambuco. The terrain is much more rough and less sugar cane friendly in this region of the country, and it is more difficult to both grow and harvest sugar cane. Nevertheless, a substantial amount of sugar cane is grown in this region, though it mostly goes to feed local supply.
Brazil is an agricultural giant, and according to estimates, has around 320 million hectares of land which are suitable for cultivating sugar cane. A very small proportion of this is currently being used in sugar cane production, with some experts estimating that far less than five percent of land with the potential for cultivating sugar cane is actually being used for that purpose. This gives us some idea of the scope Brazil has for producing potentially leviathan amounts of sugar cane in the future.
Strains of Sugar Cane
Research in Brazil has resulted in over 60 different strains of sugar cane which allows it to be planted in types of soil that at one time would not have supported sugar cane growth. The strains are also much richer in sucrose than their traditional counterparts which are still grown in many sugar producing countries, and can sometimes be grown for up to twelve generations before sucrose levels suffer.
Processing Sugar Cane
Brazilian sugar cane is most often processed into VHP sugar, and then subsequently into highly refined ICUMSA 45. The first part of the processing occurs at the sugar mill, where the cane is taken after it has been harvested. The cane is cut and shredded before being sent through the rollers and mills which grind and crush the cane, extracting the sucrose rich juice, and yielding bagasse, the fibrous part of the cane as a by product. At one time, this bagasse would have been simply burned as waste, but it is now often used as a source of power in sugar mills, or sold for the making of recyclable products, or use as a fuel in other locations.
The sugar rich juice is then taken and boiled to evaporate the excess water and encourage the growth of sugar crystals. This process is further helped along by the addition of sugar dust, very finely ground sugar crystals around which sucrose forms sugar crystals. When the sugar crystals are grown, both they and the juice they grew in are taken away for centrifuging, a process where they are spun at very high speed. This process drives away the liquid, known as molasses, and leaves behind VHP sugar. The molasses produced at this stage is first molasses, and is still relatively high in sucrose content, so it is fed back to the boiling stage, reboiled, and crystals are regrown before the whole mixture is once again sent into the centrifuging chamber.
The products of this second round of processing are called ‘B’ sugar, and second molasses. The entire process is then repeated again for a third time to create ‘C’ sugar and final, or blackstrap molasses. The ‘B’ and ‘C’ sugar is also quite often redissolved into a liquid solution and reboiled and recrystallized to produce more ‘A’ grade, VHP sugar, which is defined as being raw sugar that has a sucrose content of 99.4%.
The raw VHP sugar is then normally sold offshore to a refinery who puts it through the final stages of refining to strip away most all of the contaminants and transform the light brown VHP sugar into sparkling white ICUMSA 45 sugar.
This is achieved in some cases by another stage of dissolving and centrifuging, but most often by carbonization, which involves dissolving the sugar into a liquid solution and adding milk of lime to that solution. The milk of lime forms deposits of calcium carbonate in the liquid solution. These deposits trap colorants and contaminants and leave the sugar solution pure. The sugar solution is then once more boiled, crystallized, and centrifuged to produce ICUMSA 45 sugar. In some cases, phosphorus may be used in place of milk of lime to achieve the same purification.
Sugar Cane Bagasse
Brazilian sugar cane bagasse has come to be in high demand, as a fuel, and as a replacement for plastics and paper. Bagasse can either be burned as fuel to provide energy for the mill that it was created at, a process which generally provides more than enough electricity to power the mill with a surplus to be sold on the national grid, or it can be charcoaled to make bagasse charcoal briquettes, which do not add to the problem of deforestation, burn cleanly with little pollution, and which have a long storage life.
Bagasse is also sometimes recycled into paper, and even disposable tableware. When molded into tableware, sugar cane bagasse is an excellent substitute for traditional plastics and polystyrene, which wreak havoc with the environment. Unlike plastic and polystyrene which fill up landfills and stubbornly refuse to degrade for thousands of years, a bagasse plate will biodegrade within three months at the longest.
Sugar cane bagasse tableware is also surprisingly strong and resilient, being able to stand temperatures as high as 190 degrees Fahrenheit, and also being microwave and freezer safe.
Sugar cane in Brazil continues to grow from strength to strength. As a source of sugar, ethanol bio-fuel, and with its byproducts such as molasses and bagasse being incredibly useful too, it is unlikely that we will see a decline in the amount of sugar cane in Brazil for many years to come.
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