Application of NIR cane analysis technology to small consignments of cane in Fiji.

Near infrared (NIR) technology for rapid, on-line determination of sugar content in prepared cane has been applied at Lautoka Mill during the 1999 and 2000 seasons. The overall aim of the project is to achieve an analysis on at least 95% of consignments of cane sent to the factory. Over an extended period of operation, however, only 33% of cane consignments were successfully analysed by the NIR installation. Small cane consignments, typical of Fiji, resulted in poor tracking integrity and limited the time available for on-line NIR measurement. Subsequent developments in the system at Lautoka have allowed the minimum consignment size to be reduced to seven tonnes. Calibration databases and equations developed in Australian sugar mills were used in the Lautoka trial. The predictive capabilities of these calibrations are reported.