Lynne Wong's PhD thesis

is prepared by dissolving 800 g potassium iodide in 500 mL of warm distilled water. The
juice preservative is applied at a rate of 0.5 mL per litre of sample.
2.1.2 Equipment
A heavy duty universal model 264 Jeffco cutter-grinder (Fig 2.1) with a 7500 W, three
phase motor, was suitable for shredding the sugar cane stalk.
A cane chipper (Fig 2.2) with four steel blades bolted onto a horizontal, cylindrical shaft,
which rotates at a high speed, was used to shred cane into pieces about 2 – 3 cm long.
Cane was fed manually to the electrically-driven rotating knives.
Juice was expressed from the cane by means of a Pinette Emidecau hydraulic press
(Fig 2.3) capable of exerting a pressure of up to 25 MPa to sample contained in a stainless
steel cup.
A Schmidt and Haensch DUR W2 sugar refractometer (Fig 2.4) was used to measure the
refractive index of sugar solutions and displayed the results as dissolved solids (g) in 100 g
solution (Brix).
A Schmidt and Haensch Saccharomat sugar polarimter (Fig 2.5) was used to measure the
pol and Clerget sucrose of mixed juice, and pol in bagasse, cane, dry leaf, green leaf and in
tops.
A Dionex high performance ion chromatograph (Fig 2.6) equipped with an eluant degas
module model EDM-2 and a pulsed amperometric detector was used to determine glucose,
fructose and sucrose. Separation was achieved at ambient temperature on a Dionex
CarboPac PA1 column of 250 mm length and 4 mm internal diameter. The column was
preceded by a guard column packed with the same material. Sodium hydroxide solution
(150 mmol L -1 ) was used as eluant at a flow rate of 1 mL per minute.
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