Pre-processing of sugar cane

Abstract

A system for infield collection of substantially whole cane and delivering that cane to a mill via a trash separator and a washer. A harvester collects whole cane and throws billeted cane along with trash into an infield transporter which then transports this to a centralised trash separator. The trash separator may service any number of infield transporters and may be located at a mill or a centralised location so that output from the trash separator may pass on to a conveyor. Billets are then fed to a washer. The washing liquid from downstream process may be used in the washer. Mud and dirt is removed from the billets in return liquid which then passes to a mud removal unit. This juice is returned to the downstream process. Wash liquid may also be collected via an outlet conveyor. A modular harvester, a trash separator and a washer are also described.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.