Purity of sugar products is a very important parameter
to be determined mainly to control low grade crystallization step. Edye (2002) described a new
technology for on line determination of sucrose concentration in process
streams. The sensor is named SRI wide purity probe. The absorbance reading on SRI probe is converted in sucrose (%) through a conversion equation obtained from linear regression analysis of experimental data. This probe has a linear
response between 0 - 70% w/v sucrose, a relative standard error of 0.35% and is
not affected by temperature. However mud in juices affects probe reading.Cleaning by back wash flush with hot water or caustic must be necessary. In beet industry application, betain can interfere with sucrose measurements.
Bibliography
Edye Les A., 2002, The on-line determination of purity in sugar manufacturing process streams, Proc. of S.I.T. Conf., 2002,paper # 815