Clarificação do caldo de cana por meio de carvões ativados feitos a partir do bagaço da cana-de-açúcar.

Abstract

With the consequences of the various liquid or solid residues of the sugar and alcohol industry, there is a growing need to dispose of such waste in an appropriate way in the environment, either by treating or reusing them. Therefore, the objective of the present study was the use of a residue, the sugarcane bagasse, to produce activated carbon (AC), to be reused in the sugar and alcohol industry itself, in order to increase the cost / benefit ratio That the activated carbon can be used as an alternative in the clarification of sugarcane juice for the manufacture of sugar, discarding the use of sulfur in this stage by the sulphitation method. The activated carbons that were produced underwent chemical and physical surface treatments. For the chemical treatment, two types of carbons were made, where they were impregnated for 40 minutes in phosphoric acid and then they were taken to the electric furnace for charring. Already in the physical treatment, the bagasse in natura was taken directly to the furnace, where the activation occurred by water vapor. During the tests, the color reduction was evaluated, according to ICUMSA color, with different mass quantities of the activated carbon, together with 50 ml of cane juice. Physical-chemical analyzes were also performed before and after the tests, such as ° Brix, pH, Pol, purity and turbidity. With the experimental tests, it was possible to visualize that the type of activated carbon that obtained the best result of color reduction index, around 80%, was the CAQ of the bagasse in natura, using 0,7 g of this type of coal. Considering the results, it was verified that the activated carbon obtained by sugarcane, which is an easily found residue, has the potential to be considered as an alternative in the process of removing impurities from the sugarcane juice.