SIT CRYSTAL AWARD - 1990

EARL J. ROBERTS

President Léon Sué presents the Crystal Award to Earl J. Roberts

Earl Roberts was born in Magee, Mississippi and grew up on the family farm. His father died when Earl was eleven years old, and so, as a young boy, he had heavy farm work responsibilities for some years.

In 1935, after graduating from high school, Earl entered Mississippi College at Clinton, Mississippi, where he played in the National Guard Band, worked on the campus, and in his third year, was appointed Laboratory Instructor in organic chemistry, to help pay his way through. He graduated with distinction in 1939 with a major in chemistry. Employment as a Chemist was very difficult to find at that time, so he took a job as a high school science teacher. After school was out, he took a job with the Mississippi Testing Laboratory testing concrete.

In January 1941 he was appointed a graduate assistant in the Chemistry Department at Louisiana State University. Upon graduation in 1942 with an MS. in organic chemistry, Earl obtained employment as a Junior Chemist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Southern Regional Research Center. He was assigned to work on cotton and peanut proteins and to prepare plywood glue, needed in the war effort, from them. Several papers and patents resulted from this work.

After two years, he transferred to the Agricultural Chemical Research division, and was assigned to work on processing problems in the cane sugar industry. His first accomplishment was to develop a quantitative method for aconitic add in sugar house products, and then to help develop a commercial process for recovering aconitic add from cane sugar molasses. The Godchaux Sugar Company built an aconitic recovery plant at Raceland, La, based upon this work, and operated for several years at considerable profit. For this work, Earl was awarded the U.S. Department's Superior Service Award in 1950. Earl continued in sugar research, on the isolation and identification of the non-sugars in sugarcane protein. Earl is responsible for developing the table on Composition of Sugarcane & Juice Solids' that has appeared in The Cane Sugar Handbook since 1983.

In 1965 this work on sugarcane research was discontinued and Earl was assigned to work on the structure of cotton cellulose as revealed through chemical reactions, which led to many publications and patents. Frequent attempts to lure him to industry or academia did not succeed. Earl remained with U.S.D.A. until 1972, when he retired, and was hired the next day by Dr. Frank Carpenter to work for the Cane Sugar Refining Project, Inc. His first assignment, on acid beverage floc, showed that the most prevalent type of beverage floc resulted from the reaction of an acidic polysaccharide and a small amount of protein, both constituents of sugar-cane and cane sugar. A study of the characteristics of the indigenous polysaccharide, isolated from fresh cane juice showed that it contained glucuronic acid, and was not the pectin reported in old literature. Further study revealed a cane glucan now identified as phytoglycogen. A quantitative method for total polysaccharides resulted from this work.

About this time the presence of dextran, causing false pol and increased viscosity in raw sugar, was identified as an important factor in sugar processing. Earl's background in polysaccharide work led to his developing a specific method for dextran in sugarcane products, which is now the official AOAC method for quantitative analysis for dextran in raw cane sugar.

In 1981, when C.S.R.R.P.I. was reorganized as Sugar Processing Research, Inc. (S.P.R.I.) with Dr. Margaret Clarke as Managing Director, sugarbeet companies began to support the group, and Earls expertise on plant sugars and polysaccharides is now being applied to sugarbeet processing in addition to cane sugar manufacture and refining. At present, he has retired and maintained a position as a research consultant for SPRI, and is engaged in research projects on color removal and polysaccharides. Earl has published more than 100 papers and 6 patents. His papers have been presented at all major sugar meetings, and many chemical conferences.

Earl is married to Kirk Lilly and they have a daughter, a son, and triplet grandchildren. In his spare time Earl engages in cabinet making. He has served as a Cub Scout Master, Boy Scout Leader, President of his son's High School Band Booster Club, and as a Deacon in his church.

PARTIAL LIST OF PUBLICATIONS OF EARL J. ROBERTS

Progress in research on the soluble polysaccharides of sugarcane, S.P.R.I. 1964

Composition of acid beverage floc, S.P.R.I. 1974

Optimum conditions for determining individual minor constituents in cane sugar by gas-liquid chromatography, S.P.R.I. 1974

Colorant formation under refining conditions, S.P.R.I 1974

Determination of refined sugar proteins by polyacrylamide gel electropboresis, S.P.R.I. 1976

The role of charged particles in floc formation, S.P.R.I. 1976

The identification of volatile constituents in sugarcane and cane sugar products, S.P.R.I. 1978

Some observations on the high molecular weight colorants in sugar, S.P.R.I. 1978

Dextran problems in sugar production, S.P.R.I. 1978

Isolation and identification of constituents contributing to odor and flavor in syrups and brown sugars, S.P.R.I. 1980

Color in refinery products, S.P.R.I. 1980

Dextran analysis: methods and problems, S.P.R.I. 1980

Phenolics in sugar products: their role in flavor and color production, S.P.R.I. 1982

A quantitative method for dextran analysis, S.P.R.I. 1982

Recent observation on starch and sugarcane products, S.P.R.I. 1984

A glucan from sugarcane, S.P.R.I. 1984

Recent studies on dextrans and polysaccharides in refinery processes, S.P.R.I. 1986

Non-starch, soluble polysaccharides of sugarcane, S.P.R.I. 1986

High molecular weight color in refineries, S.P.R.I. 1988

Composition of dextran in raw sugar and sugarcane juice, S.P.R.I. 1988

Structural studies on a fructan from sugarbeet and sugarcane juice, S.P.R.I. 1988

Diethylaininoethyl bagasse as a decolorizing agent in sugar processing, S.P.R.I. 1992

Polysaccharides of beet and cane sugar: a progress report, S.P.R.I. 1992

Use of DEAE-bagasse to remove color, turbidity and polysaccharides in sugar manufacture, S.P.R.I. 1994

Sugarbeet and sugarcane polysaccharides: a brief review, S.P.R.I. 1996

Saponins from sugarbeet, S.P.R.I. 1996

Soluble silicates in refinery processes, S.I.T. 1976

Effect of temperature upon filtration efficiency, S.I.T. 1979

Dextran analysis in sugar process liquors and juices: a comparable study of methods, S.I.T. 1982

Update on dextrans and dextran analysis, S.I.T. 1986

Large colorant and polysaccharide molecules in raw sugars, S.I.T. 1987

Dextran analysis in raw sugars by H NMR spectroscopy, S.I.T. 1995