Impurity in sugarcane juice as mineral content: A prospect for analysis using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) and chemometrics

Abstract

The juice extracted from sugarcane passes through several clarification stages before either sugar or ethanol production. These stages involve chemical addition to purify and clarify the juice, mainly when it is destined for sugar production. The addition of these chemicals can negatively impact the environment, causing soil and water contaminations, as main effects amidst others. Hence, these chemicals, products, and subproducts formed during the clarification stages, which become mineral impurity on the extracted juice, must be assessed. The key idea is the better control of the industrial production of these commodities – sugar and ethanol. Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) presents itself as a high-analytical-frequency technique, with minimal sample preparation, without adding toxic chemicals in most cases. The results shown here is an initial exploratory study of the ability of partial least squares (PLS) to model EDXRF data for the estimation of Ca, Fe and K in sugarcane juices at different clarification stages. At first glance, this method may guide the proper use of chemical reagents towards the stages of sugarcane juice clarification for Ca (in four stages), Fe, and K (in seven stages) to reduce the environmental impact.