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Sugarcane recovery percentage CCS Photo: Jefferson Lucena · Pexels License · source ↗

Sugarcane recovery percentage (Commercial Cane Sugar, CCS)

Sugar recovery, more precisely the Commercial Cane Sugar (CCS) percentage, is the proportion of crystalline sugar that a mill can commercially extract from 100 kg of crushed cane after accounting for unavoidable losses in juice extraction, clarification, evaporation and crystallisation. CCS is the central technical and commercial metric of the Indian sugar industry — it determines FRP premium, mill viability and the variety-choice signal sent to farmers.

Principle

When sugarcane is crushed, the juice contains sucrose, reducing sugars (glucose and fructose), ash and non-sugars. Pol is the apparent sucrose measured by polarimeter on the clarified juice. Brix is total soluble solids by refractometer. Purity is pol divided by brix. CCS attempts to capture not the raw sucrose in cane but the sucrose that is actually crystallisable into commercial sugar — and is corrected for fibre content and processing efficiency.

The standard ICAR-VSI CCS formula:

CCS % = [Pol % cane x 1.022] - [0.292 x Brix % juice]

or, the more widely used VSI formula:

CCS % = [(Pol % cane) - {(Brix % cane - Pol % cane) x 0.4}] x 0.73

Both formulae are calibrated against the standard 12.5% fibre cane and apply correction factors for fibre and impurities.

Procedure (mill weighbridge to laboratory)

  1. Trucks of cane are weighed and sampled at the mill weighbridge
  2. Sample canes are crushed in a laboratory roll mill at standard pressure
  3. Juice brix is measured by refractometer; juice pol by polarimeter on lead-clarified juice
  4. Fibre is estimated gravimetrically or from the sucrose-extraction balance
  5. CCS percent is computed by the state-notified formula
  6. The mill's average season CCS is the weighted CCS across all cane crushed in the season — this is the figure used for FRP premium settlement (see sugarcane-frp-fair-remunerative-price)

Typical values

  • Co 86032 in peninsular mills (Maharashtra, Karnataka): 11.8-13.5%
  • Co 0238 in subtropical UP (red-rot-free years): 11.5-12.5%
  • Average UP mill (mixed varieties, 2018-19 peak): 11.46%
  • Average UP mill (2022-23, post-red-rot): 10.55-10.8%
  • Maharashtra state average: 11.2-11.8%
  • Bihar, Uttarakhand state average: 10.0-10.8%
  • Mill cut-off for viability at FRP: roughly 10.5% (below this, mills accumulate cane arrears)

When and where it applies

CCS-percentage applies in every transaction between a mill and a farmer covered by FRP. Cane Commissioners notify formula and procedure at the start of each sugar season. Random check-samples are drawn by the Commissioner's office and chemists at sub-divisional and state Cane Development Council laboratories. Disputes are settled by referee analysis at the state Sugar Technologist's office.

Limitations

  • CCS rewards sucrose content but does not capture juice quality, recovery efficiency or by-product (molasses, bagasse, ethanol) value; mills that earn substantially from ethanol may still be viable below 10.5% CCS
  • Red rot, smut and grassy shoot infections inflate reducing sugars and depress CCS even where pol-percentage looks normal
  • Adulteration with extraneous trash (tops, water-shoots) at the weighbridge is a chronic recovery-suppressing problem; standard cleaning bonuses and penalties counter this
  • The single-variety dominance (Co 0238, Co 86032) means a pathotype shift or weather event can collapse state-average CCS by a full percentage point in one season, as happened in UP 2019-2021 (see sugarcane-red-rot-colletotrichum)

See also: Sugarcane crop, Sugarcane FRP, Sugarcane SAP, Co 0238 sugarcane, Co 86032 sugarcane, Sugarcane red rot.

Sources

  1. Sugar recovery and CCS calculation. Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune.
  2. Cane quality and sugar recovery. ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore.
  3. Sugar season statistics. Indian Sugar Mills Association.