Studying the process of extracting sugary substances from the stalks of sweet sorghum in the technology of making food syrups

Abstract

The need to intensify the process of extracting sugar substances from sweet sorghum stalks in order to improve the quality and yield of the target product has been substantiated. Existing techniques of sugar substance extraction used in sweet sorghum processing technologies have been analyzed. The application of a combined technique for extracting sugary substances has been proposed implying the production of pressed and diffusion juice.The results of optimizing the press technique of juice extraction from sorghum stalks are given. The equations of material balance of products and sugars have been built, depending on such factors as the degree of pressing, the initial content of solids and sugars in the stalks. A procedure for calculating the yield of pressed juice, cake, and the content of total sugars has been devised, according to which the preliminary pressing of the stalks ensures the extraction of juice in the range of 25‒35 %, the yield of the pressed cake is 75‒65 % on average, with a sugar content exceeding 60 %.It has been experimentally established that the use of the anti-current process of extraction of sugar substances from the pressed cake ensures their complete extraction from raw materials.The rational parameters for this process have been defined. At a temperature of 66–70 °C and a duration of 20 minutes, it is possible to obtain an extract whose content of solids is 13.0 %, total sugars ‒ 11.10 %, and whose purity is 85.38 %. The research was carried out in order to ntensify the extraction of sugar substances from sweet sorghum plant raw materials, to improve the technical level of the extraction process, and implement the devised method under industrial conditions. Further implementation of these results in the food industry could make it possible to establish the production of a wide range of sugar-containing products, both organically and as a natural substitute for sugar in food products.