Thermal degradation kinetics of sugars under typical processing conditions found in Brazilian sugar and ethanol factories

The thermal profile of juice from clarification to syrup including the transfer pipes in a Brazilian sugar mill was determined to estimate the sugar losses through kinetics. Two cane juice flow rates (100% and 60% of maximum) were studied under technical conditions. At the maximum cane juice flow rate and considering only the evaporation set, the total thermal hydrolysis of sucrose and degradation of total sugar as invert sugar, TSAI, were 1.09% and 0.32%, respectively. Including clarification with its residence time of 70 min, losses increased to 1.67% and 0.53%, respectively. At the lower flow rate, losses were 0.99% and 0.30%, respectively and increased to 1.58% and 0.51%, respectively taking clarification into account. The tools used in this work are widely applied in the food industry to optimize thermal processes to achieve maximum retention of nutrients and shelf life of products.