THE EFFECTS OF PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM 
AND pH IN CANE-JUICE CLARIFICATION 
I. INTRODUCTION 
According to DOUWES-DEKKER1  , the aim of the various 
clarification processes is to convert a dark-green and muddy-
mixed juice into a brilliant, light-yellow coloured clarified 
juice, and in order to achieve this result, chemicals and heat 
are used. Their action is to precipitate those non-sugars, 
which if not removed from the juice, might subsequently inter­
fere with the efficient separation of the sugar-crystals from 
the mother-liquor. DAVIES2  defined a clarification process 
as one in which the expressed juice from the mills is treated 
with an addition of milk of lime and the application of heat 
in one of various combinations; the precipitate so formed is 
settled out, and the clear supernatant liquid removed by 
decantation. ERINSEN-GEERLIGS held that the purpose of clari­
fication is to free the juice as quickly as possible from all 
constituents except sucrose, without the alteration of the 
sucrose itself, and with the two-fold object of making the 
juice clear and light in colour. He believed that clarification 
processes are designed to effect a radical change in the physical 
properties of some of the juice constituents so that separation 
of these Is facilitated. Defecation, a term synonymously used 
with clarification, is according to DEERR^", the process by 
which a clear negotiable juice is obtained by the combined 
action of heat, lime, settling and decantation, while SPENCER 
and MEADE^ c laim that the principal object of the clarification 
process is to remove from the juice the maximum quantity of 
impurities at the earliest possible stage, commensurate with 
other considerations such as clarity, and reaction of the 
clarified juice.