HAVANA, CUBA.-  (ACN) At least eight products come from the industrial use of sugar cane, which become the raw material of the production chains, said an expert in the branch.The list includes all materials coming from the harvest: sugar, honey, bagasse, cachaça, ashes, vegetable water and wastewater, explained ACN Arodis Caballero Núñez, director general of the Cuban Institute for Research on Cane Derivatives Sugar (ICIDCA).

He added that the successive processes for their transformation into basic products and others, have a greater technological complexity and intensity of investment, so there are derivatives of second, third and even fourth
generation.

In the case of what can be obtained from the honey, by means of conventional technology of fermentation, it excels the alcohol, the yeast saccharomyces and the carbon dioxide, the specialist said.

Caballero Núñez mentioned the fact that if it is a question of chemical synthesis, based on alcohol as a raw material, the so-called alcoholic, various types of commercially available resins and plastics can be achieved.

He indicated that at that basic level are the brandy and rum, historically the first to have used on a large commercial scale, although clarified that for the latter to occur currently requires technology, market and financing.

In the 1980s, Cuba had the most diversified sugar industry in the world because of the confluence of these factors, he said.

Caballero Núñez said that ICIDCA has participated in all projections and productive strategies of the sector and currently contributes to that of the Sugar Group AZCUBA and the country, whether with Cuban or foreign capital.

In order to close the research cycle, the institution has several plants, where the products that emerge from the research projects are obtained, according to the source.

One of them is Fitomas E and M, phytostimulant and ripening, and the other one of bioproducts, located in the municipality of Quivicán, in the neighboring province of Mayabeque.

It also has the chemical synthesis, which produces the inhibitor IFOPOL, the FURAL line and Tomaticid, among others.

At the ICIDCA headquarters there is a small factory that produces the exclusive VIGÍA rum and provides services to the industry, including three accredited laboratories: LEYCAL for sugar and honey certification, LABEB for alcohol and rum certification and LAGUAZUR for analysis Of water and wastewater.

They also have reference centers for diagnosis, such as CERALBE, CRIAPIA and CENGMA, with national and international recognition.

ICIDCA, created on the initiative of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara 54 years ago, is certified by its quality management system and is now extending its reach to the new standard of the International Standardization System (ISO).

The research occupies more than half of its staff and has 33 national, four business and five international projects.Every two years it organizes the International Diversification Congress, whose XIV edition will begin the 26 of June in the fairground of PABEXPO.