Estudos sôbre a neutralização do caldo de cana nas usinas de açúcar: I - determinação do CaO e MgO totais e CaO disponível da Cal

Abstract

This paper is the first of several papers about the studies of neutralization of sugar cane juice, after treatment with SO2 in the cane sugar fabrication. The present work reports a study about the chelatometric method for the determination of total calcium oxide and magnesium oxide of lime and the available lime. The proposed method (by EDTA titration) for determining available lime was compared with the method based on sulfuric acid titration, with good agreement. The results showed that the chelatometric method is rapid and affords good precision. For the study about the neutralization of sugar cane juice, after treatment with SO2, were employed samples of lime containing several per cent of available lime. The quantities of lime to be added, to one liter of treated juice, was calculated based in the total calcium oxide of the lime. The solid samples of lime were added to the juice slowly and the material shaken intermittently during the period of fifteen minutes after the addition of lime. The pH was determined both 15 minutes and 2 1/2 hours after the addition of lime. Them it was brought to ebullition, cooled at room temperature and the pH was again determined. The results permit to conclude that the samples containing small amounts of available lime showed the poorest neutralization. Even with samples containing high percentage of available lime it was not possible to obtain a juice with pH 7,0 after the treatment, probably due to the presence of carbonates in the samples of lime. This study showed that the principal characteristic of lime to be employed in the juice neutralization is the available lime.