1 The refining process Sucrose is purified from raw sugar in a seven step process as follows: 1.

Affination - dissolving off some surface impurities. This process removes the the thin layer of molasses and impurities from raw sugar crystals using centrifugal machines. 2. Carbonatation - removing further impurities that precipitate from solution with calcium carbonate. Basically what we are doing here is adding carbon dioxide and lime to the melted sugar to form a precipitate of calcium carbonate. The carbonation precipitate is removed by pressure filtering the sugar liquor through cloth in a pressure leaf filter, leaving a straw-coloured, crystal clear liquid. 3. IER absorption IER (that is ion exchange resins) is used here to absorb the colourant in the brown syrup so that a light amber syrup is produced which we call fine syrup. Note: An ion-exchange resin or ion-exchange polymer is an insoluble matrix normally in the form of small (12 mm diameter) beads, usually white or yellowish, fabricated from an organic polymer substrate. The material has highly developed structure of pores on the surface of which are sites with easily trapped and released ions. The trapping of ions takes place only with simultaneous releasing of other ions; thus the process is called ion-exchange. There are multiple different types of ion-exchange resin which are fabricated to selectively prefer one or several different types of ions. Ion-exchange resins are widely used in different separation, purification, and decontamination processes. The most common examples are water softening and water purification.

4. Evaporation and crystallisation the fine syrup is concentrated upto 72% using a doubleeffect evaporation system. The concentrated syrup is then further evaporated in vacuum under boiling pans. Crystals are produced. 5. Drying, cooling and screening dried to a moisture content of less than 0.02% and cooled to a temperature of less than 40 degrees Celsius and then screened into fine and medium grain-sized products.

6. Separation - Sugar crystals are extracted by separation from syrup using centrifugal machines.

7. Packaging the product is finally packed into packages of various sizes.