OIL IN THE SUGAR AND RUBBER INDUSTRIES.
Sugar cane as grown in Hawaii, Mexico, Louisi ana, and the West Indies, is made into sugar by ex tracting the juice from the cane and putting it through the processes of extraction of the juice, clarification, evaporation and separation of the crystals.
Analyses of the ripe cane gives the following aver age : Sugar, 14 per cent ; water, 74 per cent ; fibre, 12 per cent.
This fibre or bagasse is used as a fuel, and in many cases special furnaces are required in order to obtain efficient results. To burn the bagasse direct as it comes from the crushers, elaborate and expensive arrangements were invented and placed on the market. The planters would be obliged to make radical changes in their plant equipment to take advantage of these improvements and were content to pay a high price for coal or wood. Fuel oil then came on the market, and owing to its low cost was most welcome to the planter.
Owing to the condition of the bagasse the planter was getting about two-thirds of its heat value, and found it necessary to buy an additional fuel.
From the analyses of dry bagasse it will be seen that there are sufficient heat units to supply all of the power required.
The following table gives the analyses and heat values of bagasse from different localities : B.t.u. of lb. of dry ha Place. Moisture. C. H. 0. N. Ash. gasse.
Mexico 49.10 43.74 6.08 48.61 157 8300 Cuba .... _42.50 43.61 6.06 48.45 188 8240 Hawaii 44.20 44.92 6.27 46.50 .40 190 8380 Louisiana 51.80 8371 Only a small percentage of the plants in Hawaii are required to use additional fuel. This is partly due to the fact that the plants are more modern and up to date than the plants in Mexico and Louisiana. It is interesting to note that in the plants that do use oil as an additional fuel require only from 1% to 2 gallons of oil per ton of cane treated, while some plants in Mexico are using as high as 10 gallons of oil per ton of cane treated.
From the following formula the approximate B.t.u. may be calculated :