COMPARISON OF CARBONATATION AND PHOSPHATATION PROCESS FOR CLARIFICATION OF SUGAR SOLUTIONS. A technical review to assist decision making over the appropriate Clarification

In recent years, it has been necessary for sugar factories to produce higher quality raw sugar for export and good quality refined or semi-refined white sugar for direct consumption. Consequently, clarification and decolorization processes used in sugar factories have had to be improved. It is now almost universal for sugar refineries to use either Carbonatation or Phosphatation Process to clarify the melt liquor. These chemical processes, as well as removing the finely divided particles of insoluble and semi-colloidal matter, also eliminate significant amounts of color and other non-sucrose impurities which would otherwise have to be removed at greater expence in the subsequent decolorization or crystallization processes. Recent improvements to the traditional refining processes using new chemicals, techniques and equipment are described and discussed below.