Extraction process of non-sugar nutrients of sugarcane

Abstract

The invention discloses an extraction process of non-sugar nutrients of sugarcane, which comprises the steps of extraction of initial sugarcane juice, multi-stage pretreatment filtration, microfiltration membrane filtration, precooling, freezing separation and concentration, secondary evaporation and concentration, crystallization, separation and the like, and comprises the following steps: firstly, tearing and wall-breaking squeezing are performed on the raw material sugarcane, and the initial sugarcane juice containing all nutrients of the sugarcane is extracted; the method comprises the following steps: performing primary squeezing on sugarcane, performing filtration and freezing separation concentration treatment on the sugarcane primary squeezing juice to obtain sugarcane plant cell water and concentrated sugarcane juice, and performing secondary concentration and crystallization separation treatment on the concentrated sugarcane juice to realize complete extraction of the non-sugar nutrients of the sugarcane. The process thoroughly subverts the single product mode that only sugar is produced in the traditional sugar manufacturing process of the sugarcane, not only can the sugar in the sugarcane be extracted, but also the sugarcane plant cell water and other rich nutritional ingredients in the sugarcane can be extracted respectively, through the comprehensive extraction, the economic benefit of a sugar factory is remarkably improved, and the production cost is reduced. And a brand new nutritional food source is provided for people.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane, and belongs to the technical field of deep processing of sugarcane. Background Art

[0002] As an important economic crop, sugarcane contains about 15% sugar, about 12% bagasse and about 70% water. In addition, sugarcane is rich in a variety of ingredients that are beneficial to the human body, including 16 amino acids such as aspartic acid and glutamic acid; a variety of vitamins such as vitamin C, B1, B2, B6; a variety of organic acids such as malic acid and citric acid; and beneficial compounds such as sugarcane polyphenols, total flavonoids, and mannitol. In addition, sugarcane also contains a variety of minerals such as zinc, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, strontium, and selenium. It is particularly worth mentioning that the sugarcane peel contains precious natural octacosanol.

[0003] The traditional sugar refining process of sugarcane sugar mills has a history of more than 150 years. For a long time, sugarcane sugar mills have mainly focused on extracting white sugar from sugarcane, while ignoring the value of plant cell water and a variety of beneficial nutrients in sugarcane. These nutrients are discarded by sugar mills and have not been fully utilized. First, people have not noticed and discovered that when the human body ingests these non-sugar nutrients, they will play a significant role in anti-aging, conditioning chronic diseases and sub-health, and promoting physical development. Second, because the traditional sugar-making process has always required the addition of several auxiliary chemical preparations, it has caused pollution to non-sugar nutrients, and non-sugar nutrients can only be discarded or simply used as additives for plant fertilizers or animal feeds. Direct consumption of sugarcane or the use of conventional methods to squeeze and consume sugarcane juice cannot fully break the sugarcane cells and properly heat and pressurize them, so it is impossible to obtain more beneficial trace nutrients in sugarcane, especially on the sugarcane skin.

[0004] In recent years, although existing technologies can extract cell fluid and nutrients from sugarcane, the low extraction rate leads to high production costs. There are also processes that specifically extract single beneficial nutrients such as sugarcane polyphenols, but the production costs are also very high. However, after more than four years of medical research conducted by the applicant, it was found that the comprehensive nutrients in sugarcane are far more beneficial to human health than single nutrients. To this end, the present invention proposes a process that can greatly improve the extraction rate and extract all the comprehensive nutrients of sugarcane, aiming to solve this problem. Summary of the invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane, which can extract numerous beneficial non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane on a large scale and at low cost, thereby maximizing the economic benefits of the sugarcane industry.

[0006] The specific technical solutions adopted by the present invention are as follows: A process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane, comprising the following steps: (1) Extraction of sugarcane first-pressed juice: The sugarcane raw material is fully torn and crushed by using the existing sugarcane tearing machine and sugarcane pressing machine in the sugar factory, and the first-pressed sugarcane juice squeezed from the first-stage sugarcane pressing machine is extracted. This first-pressed sugarcane juice contains all the nutrients in the sugarcane.

[0007] (2) Multi-stage pretreatment filtration: The sugarcane primary juice is subjected to multi-stage pretreatment filtration by purely physical treatment to remove coarse fibers, silt and impurities in the sugarcane primary juice to obtain sugarcane juice filtrate.

[0008] (3) Microfiltration membrane filtration: First, heat the sugarcane juice filtrate to a temperature above 85°C and below 100°C to completely dissolve the sugarcane wax in the juice, so that octacosanol is separated from the sugarcane wax and enters the juice. Then, use a microfiltration membrane separation component to filter the sugarcane juice filtrate to obtain a sugarcane juice clear liquid with a sugar hammer of 18-20°Bx.

[0009] (4) Precooling: Use refrigeration equipment and heat exchanger to cool the sugarcane juice clear liquid to 4-5°C to obtain sugarcane juice precooling liquid.

[0010] (5) Freezing separation and concentration: The sugarcane juice pre-cooling liquid is frozen to -10 to -20°C by using freezing equipment, so that the sugarcane plant cell water with a lower sugar content in the sugarcane juice is first frozen into ice crystals, and the sugar content of the unfrozen sugarcane juice is increased. The ice crystals are then separated by separation equipment to obtain concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar mass of 45 to 55°Bx. After the separated ice crystals are heated and melted, sugarcane plant cell water with a sugar mass of less than 3°Bx is obtained.

[0011] (6) Secondary evaporation and concentration: The concentrated sugarcane juice is sent to an evaporation tank for evaporation and concentration to obtain secondary concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar hammer of 70-80°Bx.

[0012] (7) Crystallization: The secondary concentrated sugarcane juice is sent to the crystallization tank for crystallization, which can produce two forms of substances, one is solid white sugar that has formed crystals, and the other is a thick sugarcane nutrient concentrate.

[0013] (8) Separation: The two forms of substances generated in the crystallization tank are sent to a separator for solid-liquid separation to obtain solid white sugar and sugarcane nutrient concentrate respectively. The sugarcane nutrient concentrate contains many trace nutrients in sugarcane, and the total content of trace nutrients reaches more than 30%.

[0014] The present invention provides an innovative sugarcane processing technology, which can not only extract sugar from sugarcane, but also separately extract sugarcane plant cell water and other rich nutrients in sugarcane. This extraction process completely subverts the model of traditional sugar factories that only produce sugar as a single product, and fully explores the value of non-sugar nutrients in sugarcane. Through this comprehensive extraction, not only the economic benefits of the sugar factory are significantly improved, but more importantly, a new source of nutritious food is provided for people. The process of the present invention not only brings unprecedented benefits to people's health, but also will bring huge economic benefits to the sugarcane industry, while ensuring the safe supply of sugar, an important national strategic material. Therefore, the present invention has important innovative significance and application value.

[0015] Since the extraction process of the present invention is carried out entirely by a purely physical treatment method, and no other substances, including water, are added during the treatment process of each step, the non-sugar nutrients extracted by this process are completely from sugarcane and are not contaminated by any other substances. The sugar brix of the sugarcane plant cell water is lower than 3° Bx, and can be used to prepare a low-sugar nutrient solution drink, which can also be taken by diabetic patients. The sugarcane nutrient concentrate containing numerous trace nutrients can be used as an additive for various health care products. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] Figure 1 This is the process flow chart of the extraction process of non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0018] like Figure 1 As shown, the process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane comprises the following steps: (1) Extraction of sugarcane first-pressed juice: The sugarcane raw material is fully torn and crushed by using the existing sugarcane tearing machine and sugarcane pressing machine in the sugar factory, and the first-pressed sugarcane juice squeezed from the first-stage sugarcane pressing machine is extracted. This first-pressed sugarcane juice contains all the nutrients in the sugarcane.

[0019] (2) Multi-stage pretreatment filtration: The sugarcane primary juice is subjected to multi-stage pretreatment filtration by purely physical treatment to remove coarse fibers, silt and impurities in the sugarcane primary juice to obtain sugarcane juice filtrate.

[0020] In this step, the multi-stage pretreatment filtration includes: firstly, using a 50-200 mesh screen to perform the first stage physical filtration to filter out 99% of the mud and all flaky or coarse bagasse and impurities in the sugarcane juice, and then using a 200-500 mesh screen to perform the second stage physical filtration to filter out the fine and short bagasse fibers and impurities in the sugarcane juice.

[0021] (3) Microfiltration membrane filtration: First, heat the sugarcane juice filtrate to a temperature above 85°C and below 100°C to completely dissolve the sugarcane wax in the juice, so that octacosanol is separated from the sugarcane wax and enters the juice. Then, use a microfiltration membrane separation component to filter the sugarcane juice filtrate to obtain a sugarcane juice clear liquid with a sugar hammer of 18-20°Bx.

[0022] In this step, the microfiltration membrane separation component uses a ceramic microfiltration membrane with a pore size of 200 to 1200 nm and a filtration pressure of 1.0 to 4.0 MPa.

[0023] (4) Precooling: Use refrigeration equipment and heat exchanger to cool the sugarcane juice clear liquid to 4-5°C to obtain sugarcane juice precooling liquid.

[0024] (5) Freezing separation and concentration: The sugarcane juice pre-cooling liquid is frozen to -10 to -20°C by using freezing equipment, so that the sugarcane plant cell water with a lower sugar content in the sugarcane juice is first frozen into ice crystals, and the sugar content of the unfrozen sugarcane juice is increased. The ice crystals are then separated by separation equipment to obtain concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar mass of 45 to 55°Bx. After the separated ice crystals are heated and melted, sugarcane plant cell water with a sugar mass of less than 3°Bx is obtained.

[0025] (6) Secondary evaporation and concentration: The concentrated sugarcane juice is sent to an evaporation tank for evaporation and concentration to obtain secondary concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar hammer of 70-80°Bx.

[0026] In this step, the heating temperature of the secondary evaporation concentration is controlled at 60-80° C. to avoid damaging some non-sugar substances in the sugarcane juice.

[0027] (7) Crystallization: The secondary concentrated sugarcane juice is sent to the crystallization tank for crystallization, which can produce two forms of substances, one is solid white sugar that has formed crystals, and the other is a thick sugarcane nutrient concentrate.

[0028] (8) Separation: The two forms of substances generated in the crystallization tank are sent to a separator for solid-liquid separation to obtain solid white sugar and sugarcane nutrient concentrate respectively. The sugarcane nutrient concentrate contains many trace nutrients in sugarcane, and the total content of trace nutrients reaches more than 30%.

[0029] Furthermore, when it is not necessary to extract the sugarcane plant cell water, steps (4) and (5) can be omitted, and the sugarcane juice clear liquid obtained in step (3) is sent to an evaporation tank for primary evaporation and concentration to obtain concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar brix of 45 to 55° Bx, and then steps (6), (7) and (8) are performed. The heating temperature of the primary evaporation and concentration is controlled at 80 to 90°C to avoid damaging some non-sugar substances in the sugarcane juice. At the same time, the steam generated by the primary evaporation and concentration can be used as a heat source for the secondary evaporation and concentration.

[0030] The following are specific examples and corresponding test data. Example 1

[0031] A batch of sugarcane from the sugar mill in the 2023-2024 crushing season is processed according to the sugarcane non-sugar nutrient extraction process of steps (1) to (8), wherein: In step (2), a 50-mesh screen is first used for the first stage of physical filtration, and then a 200-mesh screen is used for the second stage of physical filtration.

[0032] In step (3), the sugarcane juice filtrate is heated to 86° C. and filtered using a ceramic microfiltration membrane with a pore size of 1200 nm at a filtration pressure of 1.0 MPa to obtain a sugarcane juice clear liquid with a sugar brix of 18° Bx.

[0033] In step (4), the sugarcane juice clear liquid is cooled to 4° C. to obtain a sugarcane juice pre-cooled liquid.

[0034] In step (5), the sugarcane juice precooling liquid is frozen to -10°C, and concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar brix of 47°Bx is obtained after separation.

[0035] In step (6), the heating temperature of the secondary evaporation concentration is controlled at 60°C.

[0036] The non-sugar nutrients extracted from sugarcane were tested and the specific results are as follows: The sugar brix of the sugarcane plant cell water obtained in step (5) is 2.5°Bx; The content of trace nutrients in the sugarcane nutrient concentrate obtained in step (8) is

[0037] It can be seen that the present extraction process is capable of completely extracting numerous non-sugar nutrients in sugarcane that are beneficial to the human body. Example 2

[0038] A batch of sugarcane from the sugar mill in the 2023-2024 crushing season is processed according to the sugarcane non-sugar nutrient extraction process of steps (1) to (8), wherein: In step (2), a 200-mesh screen is first used for the first stage of physical filtration, and then a 500-mesh screen is used for the second stage of physical filtration.

[0039] In step (3), the sugarcane juice filtrate is heated to 99° C. and filtered through a ceramic microfiltration membrane with a pore size of 200 nm at a filtration pressure of 4.0 MPa to obtain a sugarcane juice clear liquid with a sugar brix of 20° Bx.

[0040] In step (4), the sugarcane juice clear liquid is cooled to 5° C. to obtain a sugarcane juice pre-cooling liquid.

[0041] In step (5), the sugarcane juice precooling liquid is frozen to -20°C, and concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar brix of 54°Bx is obtained after separation.

[0042] In step (6), the heating temperature of the secondary evaporation concentration is controlled at 80°C.

[0043] The non-sugar nutrients extracted from sugarcane were tested and the specific results are as follows: The sugar brix of the sugarcane plant cell water obtained in step (5) is 2.3°Bx; The content of trace nutrients in the sugarcane nutrient concentrate obtained in step (8) is

[0044] It can be seen that the present extraction process is capable of completely extracting numerous non-sugar nutrients in sugarcane that are beneficial to the human body. Example 3

[0045] A batch of sugarcane from the sugar mill in the 2023-2024 crushing season is processed according to the sugarcane non-sugar nutrient extraction process of steps (1) to (8), wherein: In step (2), a 100-mesh screen is first used for the first stage of physical filtration, and then a 400-mesh screen is used for the second stage of physical filtration.

[0046] In step (3), the sugarcane juice filtrate is heated to 93° C. and filtered using a ceramic microfiltration membrane with a pore size of 700 nm at a filtration pressure of 3.0 MPa to obtain a sugarcane juice clear liquid with a sugar brix of 19° Bx.

[0047] In step (4), the sugarcane juice clear liquid is cooled to 4° C. to obtain a sugarcane juice pre-cooled liquid.

[0048] In step (5), the sugarcane juice precooling liquid is frozen to -15°C, and concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar brix of 50°Bx is obtained after separation.

[0049] In step (6), the heating temperature of the secondary evaporation concentration is controlled at 70°C.

[0050] The non-sugar nutrients extracted from sugarcane were tested and the specific results are as follows: The sugar brix of the sugarcane plant cell water obtained in step (5) is 2.4°Bx; The content of trace nutrients in the sugarcane nutrient concentrate obtained in step (8) is

[0051] It can be seen that the present extraction process is capable of completely extracting numerous non-sugar nutrients in sugarcane that are beneficial to the human body. Example 4

[0052] When it is not necessary to extract sugarcane plant cell water, a batch of sugarcane from the sugar mill in the 2023-2024 crushing season is processed according to the sugarcane non-sugar nutrient extraction process of steps (1) to (3), wherein: In step (2), a 100-mesh screen is first used for the first stage of physical filtration, and then a 400-mesh screen is used for the second stage of physical filtration.

[0053] In step (3), the sugarcane juice filtrate is heated to 93° C. and filtered using a ceramic microfiltration membrane with a pore size of 700 nm at a filtration pressure of 3.0 MPa to obtain a sugarcane juice clear liquid with a sugar brix of 19° Bx.

[0054] Then, the sugarcane juice obtained in step (3) is sent to an evaporator for primary evaporation and concentration. The heating temperature of the primary evaporation and concentration is controlled at 85° C. to obtain concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar brix of 50° Bx, and then steps (6), (7) and (8) are carried out.

[0055] The non-sugar nutrients extracted from sugarcane were tested and the specific results are as follows: The content of trace nutrients in the sugarcane nutrient concentrate obtained in step (8) is

[0056] It can be seen that the present extraction process is capable of completely extracting numerous non-sugar nutrients in sugarcane that are beneficial to the human body.

[0057] The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in detail above. However, the present invention is not limited to the specific details in the above embodiments. Within the technical concept of the present invention, a variety of simple modifications can be made to the technical solution of the present invention, and these simple modifications all belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane, characterized in that The following steps are involved: (1) Extracting sugarcane first-pressed juice: Using the existing sugarcane tearing machine and sugarcane pressing machine in the sugar factory to fully tear and crush the raw sugarcane in sequence, extracting the sugarcane first-pressed juice squeezed from the first-stage sugarcane pressing machine. This sugarcane first-pressed juice contains all the nutrients in the sugarcane; (2) Multi-stage pretreatment filtration: The sugarcane primary juice is subjected to multi-stage pretreatment filtration by a purely physical treatment method to remove coarse fibers, silt and impurities in the sugarcane primary juice to obtain sugarcane juice filtrate; (3) Microfiltration membrane filtration: First, the sugarcane juice filtrate is heated to a temperature above 85°C and below 100°C to completely dissolve the sugarcane wax in the sugarcane juice, so that octacosanol is separated from the sugarcane wax and enters the sugarcane juice. Then, the sugarcane juice filtrate is filtered using a microfiltration membrane separation component to obtain a sugarcane juice clear liquid with a sugar hammer of 18 to 20°Bx. (4) Precooling: using refrigeration equipment and heat exchangers to cool the sugarcane juice clear liquid to 4-5°C to obtain sugarcane juice precooling liquid; (5) Freezing separation and concentration: The sugarcane juice precooling liquid is frozen to -10 to -20°C by using freezing equipment, so that the sugarcane plant cell water with a lower sugar content in the sugarcane juice is first frozen into ice crystals, and the sugar content of the unfrozen sugarcane juice is increased. The ice crystals are then separated by separation equipment to obtain concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar mass of 45 to 55°Bx. After the separated ice crystals are heated and melted, sugarcane plant cell water with a sugar mass of less than 3°Bx is obtained. (6) Secondary evaporation and concentration: The concentrated sugarcane juice is sent to an evaporation tank for evaporation and concentration to obtain secondary concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar hammer of 70-80°Bx; (7) Crystallization: The secondary concentrated sugarcane juice is sent to the crystallization tank for crystallization, which can produce two forms of substances, one is solid white sugar formed into crystals, and the other is a thick sugarcane nutrient concentrate; (8) Separation: The two forms of substances generated in the crystallization tank are sent to a separator for solid-liquid separation to obtain solid white sugar and sugarcane nutrient concentrate respectively. The sugarcane nutrient concentrate contains many trace nutrients in sugarcane, and the total content of trace nutrients reaches more than 30%.

2. The process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane according to claim 1, characterized in that: When it is not necessary to extract the sugarcane plant cell water, steps (4) and (5) can be omitted, and the sugarcane juice obtained in step (3) is sent to an evaporator for primary evaporation and concentration to obtain concentrated sugarcane juice with a sugar brix of 45 to 55° Bx, and then steps (6), (7) and (8) are carried out.

3. The process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane according to claim 2, characterized in that: The heating temperature of the first-stage evaporation and concentration is controlled at 80-90°C, and the steam generated by the first-stage evaporation and concentration is used as the heat source for the second-stage evaporation and concentration.

4. The process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step (2), the multi-stage pretreatment filtration includes: firstly using a 50-200 mesh screen to perform a first stage physical filtration to filter out 99% of the sediment and all flaky or coarse bagasse and impurities in the sugarcane juice, and then using a 200-500 mesh screen to perform a second stage physical filtration to filter out the fine and short bagasse fibers and impurities in the sugarcane juice.

5. The process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step (3), the microfiltration membrane separation component uses a ceramic microfiltration membrane with a pore size of 200 to 1200 nm and a filtration pressure of 1.0 to 4.0 MPa.

6. The process for extracting non-sugar nutrients from sugarcane according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step (6), the heating temperature of the secondary evaporation concentration is controlled at 60-80°C.

Images