Under optimal conditions, Torulopsis colliculosa NRRL 172 and Enterobacter B-87 (ATCC 27613) produced 50 to 500 mg of acetoin per g of substrate. Whereas cane molasses, gur, glucose, and sucrose were suitable substrates for acetoin production, lactose and mannitol supported very good growth but yielded little or no acetoin. Production of acetoin increased with increases in the concentration of ...

The fertility status of the soil and the standard of fertiliser management can have an important effect on the chemical composition and quality of cane juice. Both nutrient deficiency and nutrient excess can result in below optimum sucrose contents. Excessive potassium uptake may promote cane lodging and high potassium levels in juice can also influence the exhaustibility of final molasses, the...

The NIRSystems 6500 spectrophotometer has been used to study analytes in bagasse, shredded cane, direct analysis of cane extracts (DAC), mixed juice, molasses and raw sugar. Analytes included pol, brix, dry solids, moisture, sucrose, glucose, fructose, invert, ethanol, colour, ash and starch. Although Near Infra Red (NIR) is a secondary technique, relying on conventional laboratory procedures f...

Nine substrates were investigated for phytase production by Penicillium funiculosum NRC467 fine particles of crushed fava bean has been selected as the best substrate using solid state fermentation (SSF). The SSF conditions were optimized by using one-variable-at-a-time (OVAT) strategy. Penicillin G has been used to enhance phytase production instead of the traditionally used Tween 80 and Trito...

The present study deals with the pre-treatment of sugar cane molasses for the enhanced production of citric acid by Aspergillus niger NG-4. Different metal complexing agents such as potassium ferrocyanide [K4Fe(CN)6] and ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) were also employed for molasses pre-treatment and the concentrations varied from 50-350 ppm. The maximum production of citric acid (36...

The South African sugar industry has recently moved from a cane payment scheme based on the sucrose content of cane to one based upon the concept of recoverable value (RV), which is itself a modification of the estimated recoverable crystal (ERC) quantity as originally presented by van Hengel (1974). While the definitions of ERC and RV attempt to discount the effect of cane quality on factory p...