Fundamental studies into the dewatering of prepared cane and bagasse between grooved surfaces

As the first sage of a research program aimed at identifying improved roll groove geometries for mill units. Prepared cane and bagasse samples were compressed between grooved platens of different groove profile in confined uniaxial compression. 'Three series of tests were conducled that explored the effects, of groove pitch. Groove angle. maximum pressure, sample mass and compression speed on the final moisture content of the sample. The tests showed that larger groove angles resulted in lower moisture content. No consistent effect was found for groove pitch. The results also showed thatl larger compression pressure, larger sample mass and lower compression speed contributed to lower bagasse moisture for both prepared cane and bagasse samples.