Caracterização e avaliação da produção de açúcar VHP em uma usina de açúcar de cana

Abstract

Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugar from sugarcane, making a large contribution to the national economy, in which a good part of sugar comes from exports. The specific type of sugar used in export is the VHP (Very High Polarization), whose main characteristic is its very high sucrose content. Thus, the quality control of the production process and of the final product is of utmost importance, in order to meet the standards required by the legislation, and in case of non-compliance, the product may be returned, causing economic losses to the company. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate and mark the production process of VHP sugarThe production process of a sugar mill was followed, describing the production stages. Analyses of the raw material, sugarcane juice and sugar grains were also performed through physical-chemical analysis, such as: ashes, polarization, humidity, insoluble residues and °brix, to visualize the conformity with the current legislation.The results of the raw material were within the standard accepted by the literature, with only the occurrence of a few cases of mineral impurities and excess straw. The results of the analysis of the juice obtained were within the limit established as ideal in the literature, since it does not present a limit established by legislation. However, the dextran content of the broth showed a concentration very close to the established limit limit, which requires further monitoring of the process. As for the VHP type sugar, the evaluated parameters are within the standard required by the legislation, being adequate for exportation. Thus, it was not necessary that the product analyzed went through some kind of reprocessing or even that the product was returned after commercialization. Thus, the results obtained were consistent, as expected by the mill, and no further deviations and processing were necessary, thus avoiding financial and material losses.