Hardening of raw sugar : SRDC final report CSR8S

Abstract

Australia has a long term contract to supply the Soviet Union with raw sugar. While the contract seeks to avoid delivery in the coldest months, the long transport from Black Sea ports and possible delays can lead to hardening in rail cars. The consequence would be slow unloading of rail cars, extra demurrage, and extra labour cost. The buyers claim that sugar from other sources such as Cuba does not harden to the same extent.The work covered by this report aimed to investigate the fundamental mechanism of hardening. This has been done by examining the effect of various physical factors such as chemical analysis of sugar, crystal size and shape and the physical properties of the syrup layer on the crystal.The result is a set of optimum quality parameters for sugar to be sold to the Soviet Union.