An old sugar boiling house in St. Croix A modern day sugar cane mill
ProcessSugar cane is cultivated on plantations around the world. Processing sugar cane produces sucrose, bagasse, molasses, and filtercake. Bagasse is used for many purposes; fuel for boilers, production of paper products, agricultural mulch, and serves as a raw material for chemical production. Sugar is then refined, the raw sugar is further purified. In sugar mill processing, the mill extracts raw sugar from the cane. Then, the raw sugar is is refined in a sugar refinery, a factory which refines raw sugar.
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Boiling HousesBoiling houses in the 17th-19th centuries converted sugar cane juice into raw crystals. St. John had a special way of making their rum out of sugar cane, and this is how they did it. Sugar cane was cut short by hand in the fields and then brought to the grinders which extract all of the juices in the cane. The clarifier, which was a tank that held the fresh juice, is heated.
When the heated cane juice was ready to be boiled, it was let into the "grand copper". The thickened juice was then ladled
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into a steaming hot small kettle where the evaporation happens. After, the syrup was put on a 7 foot long cooling pan where the crystals would form.
Natives from Peru extracting their own raw sugar juice from two sugar cane plants.
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