SUGAR | How It's Made

these machines harvest the cane by cutting it at the base [Music] the heavier lengths of cane drop into the base of a conveyor which feeds them into the transport bin that follows alongside at the mill trucks empty their load onto a receiving table it feeds a belt conveyor that takes the cane through two separate washes the cane must be as clean as possible for extracting the juice [Music] but first the Keynes heart structure is broken down inside this crusher where rotating hammers break the cane into small pieces a conveyer loads it into a milling tandem designed to extract the sweet juice from the crushed cane [Music] in this milling tandem the cane passes through a series of five or more consecutive Mills large cylinders compress the cane fiber the juice pours out of the milling tandem and diverts into a channel away from the bagasse the dry pulp that remains after extracting the juice [Music] a worker supervises the operation at each of the mills a vat collects the juice that flows from the top and bottom of the mills [Music] now that the juice is extracted from the sugarcane it's time to process it however before it's turned into sugar crystals a sample goes through a series of tests at the sugar mills laboratory they add a thickness that binds to impurities in the juice and then filter it to make it clear and clean then it's poured into a Polara meter a machine that measures the concentration of sugar the juice from the mills now falls through this 10 meter high tower a sulfur dioxide vapors rise through it this process known as sulphate ation bleaches the juice then it flows through a device that measures its pH level while at a separate VAT workers at crowded line to water preparing a solution to which they will then up the juice [Music] an agitator mixes the cane juice and lime solution for about six hours to complete a process called alkalization it regulates the juices pH level and helps clarify it in reaction to the line the juices color changes from brown to yellow [Music] next the juice goes into these clarifier tanks it takes over two hours for the juice to settle and for the impurities to fall to the bottom of the tank a sample taken from the tank shows how the sludge collects at the bottom while the clarified juice collects at the top there's still quite a way to go before it's transformed into the stuff that goes into your tea workers filter the residue known as mud from the clarifier tanks to extract any remaining sugar there's no way stare the mud will fertilize the cane fields and the bagasse leftover will be burned as fuel the clarified juice collected from the clarifier tanks now boils in a series of evaporators this brings the concentration of the sugar in the juice up from 15 percent to 60 then the juice collects in 15 ton tanks to clarify even more any sediment left in the juice floats to the top a rotating paddle skims this residue off to the sites of the tank these tanks produce a type of syrup that goes on for still more processing workers now pour sucrose crystals suspended in alcohol into the syrup this milky solution binds to the sugar present in the syrup and helps draw it out next it all boils in large prints forming sugar crystals as the water in the syrup boils away workers regularly check to see how the sugar is crystallizing the goal to produce a thick crystallized paste known as musk wheat it then goes into a high speed centrifugal machine to remove the sugar crystals from the own crystallized syrup inside the sugar spins at 1,200 revolutions per minute this action draws the molasses to the outer shell of the machine while the crystals remain in the inner basket [Music] sprays of water wash the crystals then the water is drawn out so only the crystals remain this centrifuge draws out moisture from the sugar just like a washing machine on spin cycle dry see clothes [Music] [Music] next a conveyor belt carries the sugar crystals out of the centrifuge [Music] this mill produces raw sugar which has more molasses and is unbleached and plantation white sugar which has less molasses and is bleached a brilliant white the sugar on the conveyor now goes into a large dryer hot air blows into this dryer to bring the sugars humidity level down to naught point naught 2% that standard for table sugar [Music] the dried sugar pulls out from the dryer into a bag on a scale it's full when it weighs in at 1,000 kilos [Music] a hoist then carries the bags to a platform at the far end of the packing facility at 3,000 kilos that is a heavy load [Music] it lowers each bar Gover a chute that leads to the factory's main floor workers carefully open each back in turn and pour out the sugar directly into the chute it feeds an automated packaging machine which fills a series of two kilo plastic bags seals them and separates them this packing facility produces 200,000 bags every day that means processing 400 tons of white sugar daily

Channel: Discovery UK

Views: 10,188,484

Rating: 4.7372556 out of 5

Keywords: discovery, discovery uk, discovery channel uk, how its made, how it's made, compilation, how do they do it, how stuff works, food, most satisfying moments, HIM, most satisfying, how it's made full episode, how it's made compilation, hypnotic, hypnotic videos, satisfying food videos, how to make, sugar, how it's made sugar, how sugar is made, how is sugar made?

Id: jCKt02NGjfM

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 21 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/JFHermes]

All I could think about was what if instead of sugar it was cocaine. I wonder what the quality of industrial level cocaine production would look like in comparison to what they do in the jungle with drums of petrol.