Recovery of sugar cane cuticular wax by mechanical separation and solvent extraction

Abstract

The industrial experience in the extraction and refining of sugar cane crude wax in Cuba from filter mud confirms the feasibility of such technologies for the production of waxes addressed to the pharmaceutical market, to high price drugs such as policosanol. With the aim of develop a new technology for the recovery the natural wax that covers the cane stalk, the present paper shows a new achievement, the recovery of the wax that occurs in the fraction DERMAX, a cuticular layer that remains after the mechanical processing of the sugar cane in a blade separator INTERCANE^®, 5 ton/h, which was tested at the sugar mill. La Reforma, Veracruz state in Mexico. Two extraction systems, soxhlet and soxtec were tested and three different kind of organic solvents were evaluated. The waxy material was analysed by gas chromatography. A brief data about the chemical composition of the new quality of wax is disclosed.