The West India Committee is a British-based organisation promoting ties and trade with the British Caribbean . It operates as a charity and NGO (non-governmental organisation). It evolved out of a lobbying group formed in 1780 to represent the interests of the plantocracy .
101-533: Historically, the principal commodities of the region were cane sugar , rum , mahogany , other softwood, spices and tropical produce, early on largely confined to types that would last a long transatlantic voyage such as coffee , nuts and desiccated coconut but later expanded to include tropical fruits in general. The organisation describes itself as "the oldest body representative of the Commonwealth ." The London Society of West India Planters and Merchants
202-656: A sugar nip , a pliers-like tool, in order to break off pieces. The demand for cheaper table sugar drove, in part, colonization of tropical islands and nations where labor-intensive sugarcane plantations and table sugar manufacturing could thrive. Growing sugar cane crop in hot humid climates, and producing table sugar in high temperature sugar mills was harsh, inhumane work. The demand for cheap labor for this work, in part, first drove slave trade from Africa (in particular West Africa), followed by indentured labor trade from South Asia (in particular India). Millions of slaves, followed by millions of indentured laborers were brought into
303-534: A broad street along a broad canal with a good quay, so resources could be brought in at low cost by barge and by road. The refinery also had to stand somewhat free from other buildings. It required wind to dry the produce and to keep it from sweating, especially in Summer. The chimneys also had to significantly stick out above the surrounding buildings. From about 1800 the Industrial Revolution changed
404-597: A clarifier at one end and is heated to 88 °C while flowing through it. This forms a flocculent precipitate of calcium phosphate , entrapping some impurities and absorbing others. This floats to the top of the tank, where it is skimmed off by paddles. Decolorization follows after both carbonatation and phosphatation, which are both ended by filtering out finely dispersed particulate matter. The filtered clarified liquor can be decolorized by several means. Bone char consists of sintered long bones of cattle. It achieves decolorization, but also removes colloidal material and
505-437: A considerable amount of ash. Activated charcoal (GAC) by itself removes only color. Both are generally used in cylindrical 20–25 feet high columns of about 10 feet diameter through which the liquor is slowly filtered. Some modern plants use somewhat smaller cylinders with ion-exchange resins . These operate much faster. The decolorized liquor is then fed to an evaporator. This is a closed vessel heated by steam and placed under
606-403: A copper tube (or trough) that ended above a filter that was placed over the cistern. This filter was a piece of cloth in a basket and caught things like egg scales, nails, pieces of wood etc. At the time, the cleared juice cistern, was simply called cistern. It also served to hold the cleared juice while the first two pans were cleaned. The third step was equal to evaporation. Small portions of
707-483: A day, costing up four guilders for 100 in the winter. Adding fresh blood of oxen could help to further clarify sugar, but it was often used when not fresh, and as an alternative to expensive eggs. This led to rotten sugar, and in Holland it led to an official, but ineffective ban of its use. The second step was to filter and store the cleared liquor. For that it was brought to the cleared juice cistern by feeding it into
808-436: A night in order to dissolve. In the morning, a fire was lit under the pan or boiler. The albumen of the blood then coagulated and entangled the mechanical impurities of the sugar, forming a scum that was constantly removed. The simmering was then continued till a sample of the mixture appeared transparent. It was then rapidly boiled down till such consistency that it could form threads between one's finger and thumb. At which point
909-540: A number of impurities, including multivalent anions such as sulfate , phosphate , citrate and oxalate , which precipitate as their calcium salts and large organic molecules such as proteins , saponins and pectins , which aggregate in the presence of multivalent cations . In addition, the alkaline conditions convert the simple sugars, glucose and fructose , along with the amino acid glutamine , to chemically stable carboxylic acids . Left untreated, these sugars and amines would eventually frustrate crystallization of
1010-738: A predominantly Jamaican leadership, but as emancipation approached, by the 1830s the leadership came to include a broader ranger of planter interests from across the British Caribbean. The society evolved into the West India Committee. In 1904, the committee received a royal charter of incorporation at the initiative of the British government. It later acquired charitable status and established two subsidiary bodies: Among its records are, for example, eight collections of Caribbean and English newspapers 1761–1846, reports of
1111-550: A quarter became bastard sugar, and another quarter became molasses. The Steam Congress Company Archibald & Delafield used steam power and vacuum pans. The refinery of Teaman, Tobias & Co. on Liberty street was a wealthy company established in the building known as The Old Sugar House. The refinery of Meday & Ritter was also respectable. A refinery on the French method used steam for heating, but not for evaporation. In Baltimore, there were 9 sugar refineries in 1833. In
SECTION 10
#17327655954851212-484: A refinery in Salem these processed about 2,000,000 pounds of raw sugar. Towards the west, the sugar refineries of New Orleans were rather atypical, because they had many sugar cane plantations in the surroundings. The New Orleans Sugar Refinery was a massive establishment, employing about 100 workers. It used vacuum pans and steam power. New Orleans also had a small refinery using the old methods. In Cincinnati there
1313-470: A separate factory. In 1833 an overview of the United States Sugar refineries was made. At the time, only three refineries had switched to evaporation in vacuum. The rest still relied on traditional methods. In Philadelphia there were 12 sugar refineries in 1833. These could process 14,000,000 pounds of raw sugar The refinery of Canby & Lovering used steam power and vacuum pans, but
1414-756: A ship onto a barge before reaching their destination. Sugar refineries are often located in heavy sugar-consuming regions such as North America, Europe, and Japan. Since the 1990s, many state-of-the art sugar refineries have been built in the Middle East and North Africa region, e.g. in Dubai , Saudi Arabia and Algeria . The world's largest sugar refinery company is American Sugar Refining with facilities in North America and Europe. The sugar refineries that were built from about 1500 AD to 1800 did not require purpose built buildings. Ideally, they were located on
1515-547: A vacuum. The basic principle is that the juice enters the evaporator at a temperature higher than its boiling temperature under the reduced pressure, or is heated to this temperature. This results in a flash evaporation , which allows for concentration by multiple-effect evaporation . In the 1970s the American sugar refiners generally used double or triple effect evaporation. The result is "thick juice", roughly 60% sucrose by weight and similar in appearance to maple syrup . It
1616-427: Is +66.47°. Commercial samples of sugar are assayed using this parameter. Sucrose does not deteriorate at ambient conditions. Sucrose does not melt at high temperatures. Instead, it decomposes at 186 °C (367 °F) to form caramel . Like other carbohydrates , it combusts to carbon dioxide and water by the simplified equation: C 12 H 22 O 11 + 12 O 2 → 12 CO 2 + 11 H 2 O Mixing sucrose with
1717-429: Is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or sugar extracted from beets into white refined sugar . Cane sugar mills traditionally produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses , giving it more colour (and impurities) than the white sugar which is normally consumed in households and used as an ingredient in soft drinks and foods. Raw cane sugar does not need refining to be palatable. It
1818-468: Is a naturally occurring sugar, but with the advent of industrialization , it has been increasingly refined and consumed in all kinds of processed foods. The production of table sugar has a long history. Some scholars claim Indians discovered how to crystallize sugar during the Gupta dynasty , around CE 350. Other scholars point to the ancient manuscripts of China, dated to the 8th century BCE, where one of
1919-403: Is almost always labeled simply as sugar or pure sugar. Interviews with the five major beet sugar-producing companies revealed that many store brands or "private label" sugar products are pure beet sugar. The lot code can be used to identify the company and the plant from which the sugar came, enabling beet sugar to be identified if the codes are known. Sugar refinery A sugar refinery
2020-637: Is also sterilized with UV light. Thick juice can be stored in tanks for later processing, spreading the load on later steps of the crystallization plant. Thick juice is mixed with low grade crystal sugar recycled from other parts of the process in a melter and filtered giving "standard liquor". The crystallization phase starts by feeding the standard liquor to the vacuum pans, typically at 76 Brix. These pans are essentially single-effect evaporators, with their own vacuum source and condenser. The sugar solution has to be supersaturated in order to grow sugar crystals. There are three phases of supersaturation, which
2121-430: Is by isotope analysis of carbon. Cane uses C4 carbon fixation , and beet uses C3 carbon fixation , resulting in a different ratio of C and C isotopes in the sucrose. Tests are used to detect fraudulent abuse of European Union subsidies or to aid in the detection of adulterated fruit juice . Sugar cane tolerates hot climates better, but the production of sugar cane needs approximately four times as much water as
SECTION 20
#17327655954852222-449: Is classified as a non- reducing sugar . Sucrose crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2 1 with room-temperature lattice parameters a = 1.08631 nm, b = 0.87044 nm, c = 0.77624 nm, β = 102.938°. The purity of sucrose is measured by polarimetry , through the rotation of plane-polarized light by a sugar solution. The specific rotation at 20 °C (68 °F) using yellow "sodium-D" light (589 nm)
2323-425: Is determined by the sucrose concentration and temperature. In the metastable phase existing crystals grow, but no new ones are formed. By using seed crystals and keeping the vacuum pan in the metastable phase, a uniform size of crystals is produced. The seed crystals are introduced, typically as a slurry of known particle size and amount, into the pan. Once the initial crystals are established, further standard liquor
2424-531: Is no separate raw sugar stage to the process; the sugar extract from the beet is, after cleaning, crystallised directly into white sugar. The origins of the art of refining sugar seem to stem from Khorasan in Persia. Next, the Venetians produced a primitive form of refined sugar, resembling sugar candy . Approaching the end of the 16th century, the art of refining sugar had spread to Germany, Fifty years later,
2525-468: Is often an added ingredient in food production and recipes. About 185 million tonnes of sugar were produced worldwide in 2017. Sucrose is particularly dangerous as a risk factor for tooth decay because Streptococcus mutans bacteria convert it into a sticky, extracellular, dextran -based polysaccharide that allows them to cohere, forming plaque . Sucrose is the only sugar that bacteria can use to form this sticky polysaccharide. The word sucrose
2626-443: Is often used in food preparation, humans find molasses from sugar beets unpalatable, and it consequently ends up mostly as industrial fermentation feedstock (for example in alcohol distilleries), or as animal feed . Once dried, either type of molasses can serve as fuel for burning. Pure beet sugar is difficult to find, so labelled, in the marketplace. Although some makers label their product clearly as "pure cane sugar", beet sugar
2727-463: Is refined for reasons such as health, color, and the requirement for a pure sugar taste. Raw sugar is stable for transport and can be from mills to locations for processing into white sugar. Cane sugar mills / factories often produce a partially refined product called 'Plantation White' for their local market, but this is inferior to white sugar made by refineries. Beet sugar factories can also produce raw sugar, but this has an unpleasant taste. There
2828-464: Is supplied to the pan as the crystals grow until they reach the desired size. The resulting sugar crystal and syrup mix is called a massecuite , from "cooked mass" in French . The syrup is called mother liquor , because the crystals grow from this liquor. The massecuite content of one pan is called a strike. The massecuite is then passed to the centrifuges , where the crystals are separated from
2929-500: Is the main sugar. In others, such as grapes and pears , fructose is the main sugar. After numerous unsuccessful attempts by others, Raymond Lemieux and George Huber succeeded in synthesizing sucrose from acetylated glucose and fructose in 1953. In nature, sucrose is present in many plants, and in particular their roots, fruits and nectars , because it serves as a way to store energy, primarily from photosynthesis . Many mammals, birds, insects and bacteria accumulate and feed on
3030-594: Is the source of the word candy . The army of Alexander the Great was halted on the banks of river Indus by the refusal of his troops to go further east. They saw people in the Indian subcontinent growing sugarcane and making "granulated, salt-like sweet powder", locally called sākhar ( साखर ), ( شکر ), pronounced as sakcharon ( ζακχαρον ) in Greek (Modern Greek, zachari , ζάχαρη ). On their return journey,
3131-504: The Nederlandsche Suikerraffinaderij . The refining process was also extensively described in 1793. In 1833 another description referred to it as 'The old, or German Method, by Blood, Eggs, Clay etc. At the time refineries produced different kinds of sugar. Loaf sugar was the highest quality. Next came lump sugar, followed by bastard sugar. Bastard sugar was made from the drainings of loaf and lump sugar. It
West India Committee - Misplaced Pages Continue
3232-691: The West Indies in 1506 ( Cuba in 1523). The Portuguese first cultivated sugarcane in Brazil in 1532. Sugar remained a luxury in much of the world until the 18th century. Only the wealthy could afford it. In the 18th century, the demand for table sugar boomed in Europe and by the 19th century it had become regarded as a human necessity. The use of sugar grew from use in tea, to cakes , confectionery and chocolates . Suppliers marketed sugar in novel forms, such as solid cones, which required consumers to use
3333-463: The date palm ( Phoenix dactylifera ), sorghum ( Sorghum vulgare ), and the sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ). Sucrose is obtained by extraction of these crops with hot water; concentration of the extract gives syrups, from which solid sucrose can be crystallized. In 2017, worldwide production of table sugar amounted to 185 million tonnes. Most cane sugar comes from countries with warm climates, because sugarcane does not tolerate frost. Sugar beets, on
3434-632: The enzyme sucrase is added, however, the reaction will proceed rapidly. Hydrolysis can also be accelerated with acids, such as cream of tartar or lemon juice, both weak acids. Likewise, gastric acidity converts sucrose to glucose and fructose during digestion, the bond between them being an acetal bond which can be broken by an acid. Given (higher) heats of combustion of 1349.6 kcal/mol for sucrose, 673.0 for glucose, and 675.6 for fructose, hydrolysis releases about 1.0 kcal (4.2 kJ) per mole of sucrose, or about 3 small calories per gram of product. The biosynthesis of sucrose proceeds via
3535-415: The molecular formula C 12 H 22 O 11 . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined from either sugarcane or sugar beet . Sugar mills – typically located in tropical regions near where sugarcane is grown – crush the cane and produce raw sugar which is shipped to other factories for refining into pure sucrose. Sugar beet factories are located in temperate climates where
3636-416: The monomers glucose and fructose are linked via an ether bond between C1 on the glucosyl subunit and C2 on the fructosyl unit. The bond is called a glycosidic linkage . Glucose exists predominantly as a mixture of α and β "pyranose" anomers , but sucrose has only the α form. Fructose exists as a mixture of five tautomers but sucrose has only the β- D -fructofuranose form. Unlike most disaccharides ,
3737-682: The Acting Committee to the Half-Yearly Meeting of the Standing Committee of West India Planters and Merchants, 1878–1883, and albums of photographs and press cuttings on the 1907 Kingston earthquake in Jamaica, a country that was a major subject of its promotion work. The West India Committee exists to promote and support agriculture, manufacturing, and trade in the West Indies, Guyana and Belize, "to increase
3838-562: The Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, East Africa, Natal, north and eastern parts of South America, and southeast Asia. The modern ethnic mix of many nations, settled in the last two centuries, has been influenced by table sugar. Beginning in the late 18th century, the production of sugar became increasingly mechanized. The steam engine first powered a sugar mill in Jamaica in 1768, and, soon after, steam replaced direct firing as
3939-516: The Dutch started their refineries, which soon dominated the European market. The risks involved in large refineries stimulated developments in the insurance industry. In the early modern era (AD 1500 to 1800) the sugar refinery process consisted of some standard steps. First the raw sugar was put in a copper boiler and mixed with bullock's blood and lime-water. The mixture was then left to stand for
4040-569: The Greek soldiers carried back some of the "honey-bearing reeds". Sugarcane remained a limited crop for over a millennium. Sugar was a rare commodity and traders of sugar became wealthy. Venice, at the height of its financial power, was the chief sugar-distributing center of Europe . Moors started producing it in Sicily and Spain . Only after the Crusades did it begin to rival honey as a sweetener in Europe. The Spanish began cultivating sugarcane in
4141-807: The Love Lane refinery in the same city. In 1878 it opened the Thames Refinery at Silvertown in East London. Abram Lyle (1820–) became an important ship owner. In 1865 he bought part of the Glebe Sugar Refinery, but left it again in 1872. In 1883 he opened the Plaistow Refinery in London, only 1.5 miles from the Thames Refinery. In 1921 the two companies merged to become Tate & Lyle , a company that refined about 50% of
West India Committee - Misplaced Pages Continue
4242-782: The North Sea coast in Leith. However, the real center of the Scottish refining industry would be established in Glasgow's outport Greenock . Here, the first sugar refinery was established in 1765. Up till 1826 five others followed. By 1869 there were 14 sugar refineries in Greenock, with the two largest processing 14,000 tons of sugar per week. Four more sugar refineries were also located on the River Clyde , and two were in Leith. Glasgow
4343-705: The UK's sugar. After World War I, the British Sugar refining industry went downhill. The war made the government see the dangers of completely relying on cane sugar imports, and so the cultivation of sugar beet , processed in beet sugar factories was promoted. In 1973 the accession of the UK to the European Union meant that the British refining industry had to deal with European legislation, which favored production in Europe. In 2010 Tate & Lyle sold its sugar refining business to American Sugar Refining , which
4444-587: The United States (including California). In the northern hemisphere, the beet-growing season ends with the start of harvesting around September. Harvesting and processing continues until March in some cases. The availability of processing plant capacity and the weather both influence the duration of harvesting and processing – the industry can store harvested beets until processed, but a frost-damaged beet becomes effectively unprocessable. The United States sets high sugar prices to support its producers, with
4545-401: The actual refining took place was behind the drying house. Here were the copper boilers called pans ( ziedpannen ) where the sugar was boiled. Most of the Dutch refineries had four pans, many had three, and only a few had two. If there were four, these pans occupied a length of at least 25 feet. Each pan rested on a brick vault under which was its own stove. The location of these pans was in
4646-411: The affination process. The purpose of the affination step is to remove the molasses film / coating that still surrounds the raw sugar crystals while minimizing any dissolving of the crystals. The raw sugar is dropped into a mingler, typically a trough of about 35 feet length by 3 feet width and 4 feet depth. Here it is mixed with affination syrup to form a mixture called 'magma' of about 92 Brix. It exits
4747-452: The beet is grown, and process the beets directly into refined sugar. The sugar-refining process involves washing the raw sugar crystals before dissolving them into a sugar syrup which is filtered and then passed over carbon to remove any residual colour. The sugar syrup is then concentrated by boiling under a vacuum and crystallized as the final purification process to produce crystals of pure sucrose that are clear, odorless, and sweet. Sugar
4848-500: The building that contained the pans also contained the two lime cisterns. These had to be founded at least 30 feet deep and stood 4 feet above ground level. They were 9 by 6 feet and stood opposite the pans. Behind the lime boxes were the scum boxes of 8–9 feet high. Opposite the first pans (counted from the street) was the cleared juice cistern klaarselketel . It was about 4 feet above ground and could contain about 8-9000 pounds of cleared sugar. The post 1800 industrial sugar refinery
4949-410: The clarified juice were fed to the first pan, which was brought to boil by a brisk fire. In about 12–30 minutes, evaporation would lead the liquor to attain its requisite degree of viscosity. In Holland fast evaporation was obvious only for sugar candy. The test whether the liquor could form threads between one's finger and thumb determined when the sugar was 'done'. The first option to continue refining
5050-404: The earliest historical mentions of sugar cane is included along with the fact that their knowledge of sugar cane was derived from India . By about 500 BCE, residents of modern-day India began making sugar syrup, cooling it in large flat bowls to produce raw sugar crystals that were easier to store and transport. In the local Indian language, these crystals were called khanda ( खण्ड ), which
5151-450: The effect that many former purchasers of sugar have switched to corn syrup (beverage manufacturers) or moved out of the country (candy manufacturers). The low prices of glucose syrups produced from wheat and corn ( maize ) threaten the traditional sugar market. Used in combination with artificial sweeteners , they can allow drink manufacturers to produce very low-cost goods. Since the 6th century BCE, cane sugar producers have crushed
SECTION 50
#17327655954855252-432: The fire was damped. The second step was granulation. For this, the syrup was transferred to a vessel called a cooler, where it was agitated with wooden oars till it granulated. The third step was to put the granulated sugar in molds. The first sugar refineries were located in coastal cities throughout western Europe. They did not necessarily have to be in a port city, because at the time goods were generally transloaded from
5353-606: The following year. The Society's minute books were purchased by the government of Trinidad and Tobago . They are currently held at the Alma Jordan Library , at the University of the West Indies , St. Augustine . Cane sugar Sucrose , a disaccharide , is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar . It has
5454-567: The general welfare of the people of those territories and their global diaspora through education, training, acting as an advocate, adviser and where necessary, as an umbrella organisation". It seeks to bring Caribbean businesses to the attention of the world's major markets. The Chief Executive is Blondel Cluff CBE, who is also the Anguilla government's representative in the United Kingdom. From at least 1915 until 1929, its Secretary
5555-446: The glycosidic bond in sucrose is formed between the reducing ends of both glucose and fructose, and not between the reducing end of one and the non-reducing end of the other. This linkage inhibits further bonding to other saccharide units, and prevents sucrose from spontaneously reacting with cellular and circulatory macromolecules in the manner that glucose and other reducing sugars do. Since sucrose contains no anomeric hydroxyl groups, it
5656-465: The harvested vegetable material from sugarcane in order to collect and filter the juice. They then treat the liquid, often with lime ( calcium oxide ), to remove impurities and then neutralize it. Boiling the juice then allows the sediment to settle to the bottom for dredging out, while the scum rises to the surface for skimming off. In cooling, the liquid crystallizes, usually in the process of stirring, to produce sugar crystals. Centrifuges usually remove
5757-539: The heat) . The formula for sucrose's decomposition can be represented as a two-step reaction: the first simplified reaction is dehydration of sucrose to pure carbon and water, and then carbon is oxidised to CO 2 by O 2 from air. C 12 H 22 O 11 + heat → 12 C + 11 H 2 O 12 C + 12 O 2 → 12 CO 2 Hydrolysis breaks the glycosidic bond converting sucrose into glucose and fructose . Hydrolysis is, however, so slow that solutions of sucrose can sit for years with negligible change. If
5858-411: The heavy particles settle out in tanks (clarifiers). A final addition of more carbon dioxide precipitates more calcium from solution; this is filtered off, leaving a cleaner, golden light-brown sugar solution called "thin juice". If phosphatation is applied, the melted liquor is heated to 60-70 °C and a bit of phosphoric acid is added. The mixture is immediately limed to pH 7.0-8.0. It then enters
5959-410: The liquid, which gets recycled in the crystalliser stages. When economic constraints prevent the removal of more sugar, the manufacturer discards the remaining liquid, now known as molasses , or sells it on to producers of animal feed. Sieving the resultant white sugar produces different grades for selling. It is difficult to distinguish between fully refined sugar produced from beet and cane. One way
6060-403: The mingler into a mixer through a grating that catches foreign matter and hard lumps. The mixer is typically a 37.5 feet long, 3 ft 4 inches wide and 8 ft 6 inches high. Here the magma is mixed and heated at a temperature between 43 and 60 °C. At the bottom of the mixer are chutes to the centrifuges. In the centrifuges , the syrup is separated from the magma by pushing it through
6161-631: The other hand, grow only in cooler temperate regions and do not tolerate extreme heat . About 80 percent of sucrose is derived from sugarcane, the rest almost all from sugar beets. In mid-2018, India and Brazil had about the same production of sugar – 34 million tonnes – followed by the European Union , Thailand , and China as the major producers. India, the European Union, and China were the leading domestic consumers of sugar in 2018. Beet sugar comes from regions with cooler climates: northwest and eastern Europe, northern Japan, plus some areas in
SECTION 60
#17327655954856262-518: The outside of the form was scraped off and collected. The loaves were carefully ticked out of the molds. The British refining industry started in about 1544, when two sugar refineries were established in London. These were also known as 'sugar houses'. At first, their success was limited because of the strong competition from Antwerp. After the fall of Antwerp in 1585, the sugar refining industry in London expanded. The first sugar refinery in Bristol
6363-642: The oxidizer potassium nitrate produces the fuel known as rocket candy that is used to propel amateur rocket motors. C 12 H 22 O 11 + 6 KNO 3 → 9 CO + 3 N 2 + 11 H 2 O + 3 K 2 CO 3 This reaction is somewhat simplified though. Some of the carbon does get fully oxidized to carbon dioxide, and other reactions, such as the water-gas shift reaction also take place. A more accurate theoretical equation is: C 12 H 22 O 11 + 6.288 KNO 3 → 3.796 CO 2 + 5.205 CO + 7.794 H 2 O + 3.065 H 2 + 3.143 N 2 + 2.988 K 2 CO 3 + 0.274 KOH Sucrose burns with chloric acid , formed by
6464-423: The pan which occupied between 33 and 40% of its circumference, and was about two feet high. After the lower part of the pan had been filled, the brace was fixed in place to allow further filling. The mixture would then be left to stand during the night to dissolve the sugar. On the morrow, the fire below the pan was lit, and the mixture was slowly heated. It was regularly stirred to prevent the sugar from attaching to
6565-401: The pan. Stirring was decreased when the sugar had completely dissolved. When the sugar had almost reached the boiling point, the fire was almost extinguished. During heating the lime bound to impurities and formed a solidified scum, which was removed with a skimmer, resembling a perforated spade , with a 6–8 feet long handle. As soon as this was done a solution of eggs in water was plunged into
6666-611: The past, these refineries used to refine 9-10 million pounds of raw sugar from Cuba and Brazil, but in 1833 the Baltimore refineries were in serious trouble, and only about 2 million pounds were processed. A large steam and vacuum factory had burned down, and had not been rebuilt. The refinery of G.W. and H. Miller on Concord Street was still doing quite well. It benefitted from an abundant supply of fresh water, and clay from nearby Federal Hill . In Boston there were three refineries owned by Mr. Doane, Mr. Andrews and Mr. White. Together with
6767-476: The precursors UDP-glucose and fructose 6-phosphate , catalyzed by the enzyme sucrose-6-phosphate synthase . The energy for the reaction is gained by the cleavage of uridine diphosphate (UDP). Sucrose is formed by plants, algae and cyanobacteria but not by other organisms . Sucrose is the end product of photosynthesis and is found naturally in many food plants along with the monosaccharide fructose. In many fruits, such as pineapple and apricot , sucrose
6868-532: The process to acquire sugar from sugar beets, many sugar factories were founded to produce raw beet sugar. Near Magdeburg there were about 400 of these, one in almost every village. In 1894 these raw sugar factories founded the Hildesheim Sugar Refinery Zücker Raffinerie Hildesheim which processed their raw beet sugar. In 1913 it was estimated that 63% of German sugar beets were turned into raw sugar which
6969-433: The production of sugar beet. As a result, some countries that traditionally produced cane sugar (such as Egypt ) have built new beet sugar factories since about 2008. Some sugar factories process both sugar cane and sugar beets and extend their processing period in that way. The production of sugar leaves residues that differ substantially depending on the raw materials used and on the place of production. While cane molasses
7070-402: The reaction of hydrochloric acid and potassium chlorate : 8 HClO 3 + C 12 H 22 O 11 → 11 H 2 O + 12 CO 2 + 8 HCl Sucrose can be dehydrated with sulfuric acid to form a black, carbon -rich solid, as indicated in the following idealized equation: H 2 SO 4 (catalyst) + C 12 H 22 O 11 → 12 C + 11 H 2 O + heat (and some H 2 O + SO 3 as a result of
7171-472: The rear of the refinery in order to have as much light as possible, and as little draft as possible. The light came from the rear façade of the building, which ended on an open space of about 25 feet long. Here earth and coal were stored. Below the refinery was a lead tube that allowed to pump fresh water that, in Amsterdam, was brought by barge schuitwater to the rear of the building. The same part of
7272-411: The refinery for 3–4 months. Behind the storage for raw materials was the drying house, also called drying stove or oven. One or two houses were for drying the sugar loaves, two more were for making candy. These drying rooms were 10 feet long, 12 feet wide and 30 feet high. Each contained an iron stove burning on coal. It was set in brick, and fed from outside the room. The part of the refinery where
7373-422: The refinery would be on the street/canal side. It had to be at least 30 feet wide, 40 feet long and 20 feet high, with enough natural light and two 10 feet doors to let pass 2000-3000 pound barrels. The warehouse needed a windlass for vertical transport and a scale to weigh at least 1,800 pounds. Ideally, the warehouse and the refinery were separate buildings, but with the high real estate prices in Holland, this
7474-606: The refining process by introducing steam power and all kinds of machinery. It led to the construction of specialized building that could be recognized by having a large number of very shallow floors. The pre-1800 refinery was extensively described in the Netherlands, because the Dutch Republic dominated the trade in and refining of sugar for a long time. In Holland , the ideal refinery was at least 150 Rijnland feet (0.3140 m) long and 30 feet wide. The warehouse of
7575-404: The retaining screen in the centrifuge's side. This leaves the crystals in the centrifuge and also a residual syrup film that is removed by hot-water (82 °C+) washing of the crystals while still in the basket. The washed crystals are then plowed from the centrifuge. This 'affination sugar' is then brought to the melter. This typically is a round tank of 12 feet diameter and 6 feet height. Here
7676-427: The room. They were then stacked up to each other while the outer rows were supported by prefixes voorzetsels , i.e. broken molds that were not fit for any other purpose. The day after, the molds were brought to one of the upper floors. Here the stop of the forms was removed, and over a few days syrup leaked out and was gathered into collection pots. The forms were then put on top of a box, where sugar that stuck to
7777-543: The source of process heat. During the same century, Europeans began experimenting with sugar production from other crops. Andreas Marggraf identified sucrose in beet root and his student Franz Achard built a sugar beet processing factory in Silesia (Prussia). The beet-sugar industry took off during the Napoleonic Wars , when France and the continent were cut off from Caribbean sugar. In 2009, about 20 percent of
7878-449: The sucrose in plants and for some it is their main food source. Although honeybees consume sucrose, the honey they produce consists primarily of fructose and glucose, with only trace amounts of sucrose. As fruits ripen, their sucrose content usually rises sharply, but some fruits contain almost no sucrose at all. This includes grapes, cherries, blueberries, blackberries, figs, pomegranates, tomatoes, avocados, lemons and limes. Sucrose
7979-411: The sucrose. The most important clarification processes are carbonatation and phosphatation. If carbonatation is applied, carbon dioxide is bubbled through the alkaline sugar solution, precipitating the lime as calcium carbonate ( chalk ). The chalk particles entrap some impurities and absorb others. A recycling process builds up the size of chalk particles and a natural flocculation occurs where
8080-441: The sugar is mixed with high-purity sweetwater and agitated by paddles. This mixture is heated by steam, melting the crystals in the sweetwater to form a liquor commonly called melt liquor. The purification step consists of combinations of clarification and decolorization. All clarification treatments include mixing the melted liquor with hot milk of lime (a suspension of calcium hydroxide in water). This treatment precipitates
8181-462: The sugar mixture. This was done for the egg white or albumen, which bound more impurities. This led to more scum being scraped off. This was repeated 5-6 times, till a white slimy layer appeared on the surface instead of more scum. The solution was then called klaarsel for being cleared. Here clear also meant transparent . For purifying very rough sugar, ground water was used, and more lime and more eggs. The total use of eggs could be 400 or 500
8282-411: The total building, i.e. at least 30 feet. In the 16–18 feet of width that was left there were all kinds of tools, and things like baskets to move the scum. Near the first box, there was a hole in the ceiling and all the floors above, in order to transport goods vertically by rope. On the first floor, there was a storage for lime, which was the same size as the pans, so enough lime could be stored to operate
8383-451: The uncrystallized syrup. The producers can then either sell the sugar product for use as is, or process it further to produce lighter grades. The later processing may take place in another factory in another country. Sugarcane is a major component of Brazilian agriculture; the country is the world's largest producer of sugarcane and its derivative products, such as crystallized sugar and ethanol ( ethanol fuel ). Beet sugar producers slice
8484-401: The washed beets, then extract the sugar with hot water in a " diffuser ". An alkaline solution (" milk of lime " and carbon dioxide from the lime kiln) then serves to precipitate impurities (see carbonatation ). After filtration, evaporation concentrates the juice to a content of about 70% solids, and controlled crystallisation extracts the sugar. A centrifuge removes the sugar crystals from
8585-448: The world's sugar was produced from beets. Today, a large beet refinery producing around 1,500 tonnes of sugar a day needs a permanent workforce of about 150 for 24-hour production. Table sugar (sucrose) comes from plant sources. Two important sugar crops predominate: sugarcane ( Saccharum spp. ) and sugar beets ( Beta vulgaris ), in which sugar can account for 12% to 20% of the plant's dry weight. Minor commercial sugar crops include
8686-572: Was Algernon Aspinall , who, in the name of his committee, published geographical guides to Guyana and the British Caribbean, such as a 1907 Stanford's Guide : Pocket Guide to the West Indies and The Handbook of the British West Indies, British Guiana and British Honduras (1929). Sir Eliot de Pass served first as an ordinary member of the Committee, then as its chairman from 1925 to 1936, and finally as president until his death
8787-420: Was 'done' (i.e. boiled), it was transferred to a cooling pan. when it had sufficiently cooled, the sugar would form a crust. Ideally, the next batch of boiled sugar was done at this exact moment and was then added to the cooling pan. A cooling pan could be filled with up to five batches. Also see granulation above. Filling the molds was the fifth step. Sugar candy was made by drying the sugar by heat. For this it
8888-598: Was a struggling sugar refinery which relied on raw sugar from New Orleans. In 1974 there were 29 sugar refineries in the USA. Raw sugar may be stored for months at both the sugar mill and the sugar refinery. While stored, the raw sugar crystals are still surrounded by a fine film of molasses left by the final crystallization step at the sugar mill. This film of molasses offers an incubator for microbial growth, leading to quality loss related to storage. Nowadays many sugar refineries buy such high pol sugar, that they can do without
8989-470: Was about to be joined by another. The refinery of J.G. Smith & Son on Vine street was spacious and clean. The refinery of Paul Lajus & Co. on Bread Street had switched to the French method. This involved bascule pans hung on chains, which were far more effective than fixed pans, when open fire was used for evaporation. In New York, the sugar refineries could process about 9,000,000 pounds of raw sugar. Slightly more than half would become refined sugar,
9090-648: Was also allowed to use the name for these activities. In Germany, Hamburg was an early center of sugar refineries, rivalling the importance of Amsterdam. By 1727 there were about 200 refineries (known as Zuckersiederei ) in Hamburg, dominating the German market. From 1830 to 1850 this Hamburg industry was almost completely annihilated. Hamburg's last cane sugar refinery was the Dampfzuckersiederei von 1848, which closed down in 1885. After discovery of
9191-459: Was an important center for the production of the very heavy machinery required for cane sugar mills. This probably contributed to the growth of Greenock as a center for sugar refining, which required lighter, but comparable machinery. In 1859 Henry Tate (1819–1899) became a partner in a sugar refinery in Liverpool, which he soon came to control. In 1872 his company Henry Tate & Sons opened
9292-439: Was brought to the drying house by transport bucket. Here the sugar was put in candy pots. The operation to put the sugar in the transport buckets and to fill the pots could take about two-three minutes. Ideally, the second pan was by then ready to fill the transport buckets. If candy sugar was made, the drying room could contain about 150 pots of candy made from the raw sugar of four pans after about 6 hours of work. The drying room
9393-723: Was characterized by using gravity to transport sugar downwards through the building as it went through several refining steps. In combination with some other features, this led a recognizable type of 19th century sugar refinery building. Examples were buildings of: the Domino Sugar Refinery , the Boston Sugar Refinery , the Amsterdamsche Stoom Suikerraffinaderij , the Wester Suikerraffinaderij and
9494-522: Was coined in 1857, by the English chemist William Miller from the French sucre ("sugar") and the generic chemical suffix for sugars -ose . The abbreviated term Suc is often used for sucrose in scientific literature. The name saccharose was coined in 1860 by the French chemist Marcellin Berthelot . Saccharose is an obsolete name for sugars in general, especially sucrose. In sucrose,
9595-487: Was established to represent the views of the British West Indian plantocracy . The organisation played a major role in resisting the abolition of the slave trade and that of slavery itself. The Society was formed in 1780, and brought together three different groups: British sugar merchants, absentee plantation owners and colonial agents. (See Sugar plantations in the Caribbean .) The society started with
9696-401: Was generally ground and sold as powder sugar. Sugar candy consisted of very large crystals formed around threads. It was either white or brown, depending on the quality of the sugar that was used. The first step, roughly equal to purification, was to fill the pans with fresh water and some lime water. Next raw sugar was put into the pan. The pans had a brace, which was a part of the front of
9797-412: Was rare. The refinery was often directly behind the warehouse in the same building. Closest to the warehouse was the storage for raw materials. Here, there were 4 rooms/boxes to store different kinds of raw sugar, which was fed into the boxes from the first floor. These were each 6 feet long and 12–14 feet wide, making that the raw sugar storage part of the refinery was about 30 feet long, and as wide as
9898-536: Was started in 1607, when Robert Aldworth founded a single pan refinery. Sugar trade and refining would become the main source of prosperity for Bristol in the 18th century. At one time, there were some 20 refineries in Bristol. In Liverpool, the first sugar refinery was established in 1667. The sugar refinery industry in Scotland started in 1667. By 1715 there were refineries on the Atlantic coast in Glasgow and on
9999-405: Was then cleaned, shut off, and the fire in its stove was lit. If sugar loaves or lump sugar was made, the sugar was brought to the filling room, see image: Filling molds in 1793. Here, the molds were filled. These had a conical shape with a hole in the tip, which was stopped by a piece of cloth. In the filling room, the molds were filled and then placed on their pointy end, starting in a corner of
10100-630: Was then processed in a separate sugar refinery. In the United States this percentage was zero. This caused a lot of confusion. In 1938 the Hildesheim Sugar Refinery acquired the Zuckerraffinerie Braunschweig and closed it down the next year. Eventually the concentration of raw sugar factories meant that (central) refineries became superfluous. The raw (beet) sugar factories became so big that it became sensible to process raw beet sugar on-site instead of at
10201-451: Was to drain off the remaining water by using gravity, which would result in loaf, lump or bastard sugar. The other option was to evaporate the remaining water by heat, resulting in Sugar candy . The fourth step cooling, was not applicable to sugar candy. For loaf sugar the third or fourth pan were used as cooling pans. For lump sugar three pans were used for cooling. As soon as a pan of sugar
#484515