Lynne Wong's PhD thesis

obtained by the standard drying method; for 45 data, the standard error of mean was
0.104% for a mean of 2.42% moisture.
- The drying method described at the beginning of this Section 4.8 prior to the devised
method of Brix-free water determination left residual moisture in the cane
component parts. It varied from 0.68% in cane top fibre to 1.42% for dry leaf fines,
and averaged 1.12% for all cane component parts. Brix-free water results obtained
by using this drying method are therefore under-estimated. A correction for the
residual moisture must therefore be made to the Brix-free water results obtained. To
simplify matters, all Brix-free water values obtained in this work should have 1.1
units added to correct for this but that in the tables of data this correction has not
been implemented.
- The Brix-free water values (corrected for residual moisture) of the reconstituted
cane stalk of the four cane varieties aged 52 weeks were calculated. The average
value is 16.03%, which is much lower than the traditionally accepted value of 25%
for Brix-free water of cane stalk. However, these two quantities are not
comparable. The reconstituted cane does not include nodes, and strictly speaking, if
Brix-free water value of cane is required, fibres should be obtained from cane stalk
including rind, stalk and nodes, and Brix-free water determined on the fibres under
specified conditions.
- For reconstituted dry leaf, green leaf and cane stalk, the Brix-free water values do
not vary much with age nor with variety. The reconstituted dry leaf, green leaf and
cane stalk of the four cane varieties each has an average of Brix-free water value of
15-16%. If these values are taken together with the corresponding 15-16% Brixfree
water value of intact cane tops, it would appear that the Brix-free water values
of the different parts of the sugar cane plant, i.e. dry leaf, green leaf, cane tops and
cane stalk, are all about 15-16%. Only those of fibres differ from those of fines or
pith.
Since the Brix-free water of cane fibre is characterised as the water strongly bound to the
fibre and unavailable for the solution of the soluble components present in sugar cane, and
various types of bound water can be determined from a study of the adsorption properties
of a material, it would be of interest to study the adsorption behaviour of the sugar cane