CHAPTER 2

SUGAR MILLING AND REFINING

There are many factors to be considered in the design of a cogeneration power

plant serving a sugar mill and refinery. Some of these factors are the location of the plant,

site size and the efficiency. Also, the preparation on how the cane is processed will be

discussed hereafter.

2.1 Location and Size of the Plant

Site selection for a plant, keeping in view the various corporate objectives of the

Company requires careful considerations of the numerous factors that would go into

making the plant contribute towards its working environment and make it into a

technologically and economically viable unit. Decisions are strategic, long-term and non-

repetitive in nature. A certain amount of imaginative planning for the future is also needed

when the time of final decision about the site to be selected.

Any mistake in selection of a proper location could prove to be costly. Improper

location could be a constant source of higher cost, higher investment, difficult marketing

and transportation, dissatisfied and frustrated employees and consumers, low availability

of high caliber professionals, frequent interruptions of production and abnormal wastage.

Once a plant is set up at a particular location, it is very difficult to shift later to a better

location because of numerous economic, political and sociological reasons. Social

reasons could include employee welfare, employment opportunities.

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 The location factor also requires that the following facilities are taken into

consideration.

a. District Classification

To ensure that the license is obtained for locating the plant in a no-industry district.

b. Transportation Facilities

The raw materials and end products require to have uninterrupted receipt

and dispatch facilities through good road connections, proper linking with ports and

railheads. Possibility of an in-plant rail siding has to be looked into depending on

the amount of raw materials and products to be handled.

c. Manpower Availability

Local availability of skilled and semi-skilled manpower will add to the

efficient running of the plant.

d. Industrial Infrastructure

This is important in view of the fact that all supporting services required for

the successful operation of the plant like maintenance and repair of various

machines and other items, availability of workshops, plant services, etc. may not

be feasible to be generated within factory complex. Availability of communication

facilities is also an important part of the infrastructure.

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e. Community Infrastructure

Now-a-days, generally, as the plant would be operating on a sophisticated

technology, it would be essential to attract qualified professionals. This would

involve ensuring a good quality living which in turn would depend on availability of

good schools and colleges, medical services, good communication facilities,

cultural and recreational opportunities, etc. Unless a good community

infrastructure is available, it is found that attracting qualified professionals in rather

difficult.

f. Availability of Raw Water

It is recommended that the plant be located in close proximity to a perennial

source of water of adequate quantity which will meet the plant requirements and

the other non-plant requirements. Drawing the water by boring deep tube wells

without the provision of a perennial source is not preferable because the ground

water may be depleted at a future date.

g. Effluent Disposal

The natural drainage facility for disposal of Effluent should be duly

examined. It would be economically advantageous if an effluent disposal facility

after treatment, which can handle the produced quantity of effluent is readily

available. Otherwise, transporting the effluent by a drainage, to a safe disposal

area which is far away has to tackle the legal and ecological problems.

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 Accordingly, nearness of the site to a gas distribution network will be of great

advantage in view of long term planning and future expansions.

Plant Site Selection

The plot area and the topography should suit the plant requirements along with

required township facilities and future expansions. The grade level of the entire area

should be preferably almost same. If the plot area is not flat, it has to be levelled in the

most economical way to suit the plant. The degree of required levelling and filling should

be looked into. Load bearing characteristics and acidity of the soil plays an important role

in site selection.

Natural soil has got more load-bearing capacity as compared to filled soil.

Consequently, the cost of the civil foundation will be less in natural soil because piling to

support heavy loads may not be required whereas in case of filled soil piling may be

required (piping-engineering.com).

2.2 Raw Sugar Capacity and Process

Operative design of a cogeneration plant serving a sugar mill and refinery requires

the production capacity of the plant. Typically, the percentage of raw sugar from canes is

10% (SRA). The average milling capacity of sugar mills for the crop year of 2012-2013 is

1200 tons of cane per day (SRA), using the said value as the basis for the rated capacity

of the power plant. The computed raw sugar capacity in tons per day is shown below.

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 Raw Sugar Capacity = Rated Capacity x 0.10

tons cane
Raw Sugar Capacity = 10,000 x 0.10
day

tons raw sugar

Raw Sugar Capacity = 1,000
day

Most of the raw sugar extraction process applied on sugar manufacturing plants in

the country is the typical milling which is done in the facility called Boiling House. Figure

2.1 shows the raw sugar manufacturing process which is extracting the juice from the

sugar cane through a mill train and goes through pressured steam heating processes and

drying.

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Source: psisugar.com

Figure 2.1 Raw Sugar Manufacturing Process

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2.3 Cane preparation

Sugar cane must be crushed to extract the juice. The crushing process must break

up the hard nodes of the cane and flatten the stems. The juice is collected, filtered and

sometimes treated and then boiled to drive off the excess water. The dried cane residue

(bagasse) is often used as fuel for this process. Figure 2.2 shows how to prepare the

cane up to its storage with steam power requirement in air drying per ton (Rein, 2007).

CLEANING

GRINDING/ SLICING

JUICE EXTRACTION

PURIFICATION OF JUICE

EVAPORATION

CRYSTALLIZATION

Figure 2.2 Cane Preparation Flow Chart

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CLEANING

After the cane arrives at the mill yards, it is mechanically unloaded, and excessive

soil and rocks are removed.

a. The cane is cleaned by flooding the carrier with warm or by spreading the cane

on agitating conveyors that pass through strong jets of water and combing

drums.

b. At this point, the cane is clean and ready to be milled

GRINDING/ SLICING

a. After the cleaning process, a machine led by a series of rotating knives,

shreds the cane into pieces. This is known as "grinding”.

b. During grinding, hot water is sprayed on to the sugarcane to dissolve any

remaining hard sugar. The smaller pieces of cane are then spread out on

a conveyer belt.

JUICE EXTRACTION

The shredded pieces of sugarcane travel on the conveyer belt through a series of

heavy-duty rollers, which extract juice from the pulp.

a. The pulp that remains or "bagasse" is dried and used as fuel. The raw juice

moves on through the mill to be clarified.

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PURIFICATION OF JUICE

The juice from the mills, a dark green color, is acid and turbid. The clarification (or

defecation) process is designed to remove both soluble and insoluble impurities (such as

sand, soil, and ground rock) that have not been removed by preliminary screening.

b. The process employs lime and heat as the clarifying agents.

c. Carbon dioxide and the milk of a lime are added to the liquid sugar mixture

and it is heated to the boiling point, as the process of clarifying begins.

d. As the carbon dioxide travels through the liquid it forms calcium carbonate,

which attracts non-sugar debris (fats, gums, and wax) from the juice, and

pulls them away from the sugar juice. The juice is then pushed through a

series of filters to remove any remaining impurities.

e. The muds separate from the clear juice through sedimentation. The non-

sugar impurities are removed by continuous filtration. The final clarified

juice contains about 85 percent water and has the same composition as the

raw extracted juice except for the removed impurities.

EVAPORATION

To concentrate this clarified juice, about two-thirds of the water is removed

through vacuum evaporation.

a. Generally, four vacuum-boiling cells or bodies are arranged in series so that

each succeeding body has a higher vacuum (and therefore boils at a lower

temperature).

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 b. The syrup leaves the last body continuously with about 65 percent solids

and 35 percent water.

CRYSTALLIZATION

The crystallization process takes place in vacuum pans which boil the juice at

lower temperatures under vacuum.

a. When the juice concentrates it is 'seeded' with tiny sugar crystals which

provide the nucleus for larger crystals to form and grow. When the crystals

reach the desired size the process is stopped.

b. The remaining mixture is a thick mass of large crystals, which is sent to a

centrifuge to spin and dry the crystals. The dried product is raw sugar, still

inedible.

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Source: Cemsan Sugar
Figure 2.3 Sugar Refining Process Flow Diagram

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REFINERY

Raw sugar is transported to a Cane Sugar Refinery for the removal of molasses,

minerals and other non-sugars, which still contaminate the sugar. This is known as

the purification process.

 Raw sugar is mixed with a solution of sugar and water to loosen the molasses

from the outside of the raw sugar crystals, producing a thick matter known as

"magma."

 Large machines then spin the magma, which separate the molasses from the

crystals. Crystals are promptly washed, dissolved and filtered to remove

impurities.

 The golden syrup which is produced is then sent through filters to remove the

color and water. What's left is a concentrated, clear syrup, which is again fed

into a vacuum pan.

Re-melting

The washed raw sugar is sent to a remelter, where it is mixed with high-purity

sweet waters and is also low pressure steam heated.

Carbonatation

Carbonatation is a clarification process which is done by adding lime to the melted

sugar and introducing carbon dioxide (CO2) through the melt to remove color and

nonsugar solids and to produce a voluminous calcium carbonate precipitate. The source

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of CO2 is boiler flue gas, which contains about 12 percent CO2 by volume and is done

through the process saturators.

Filtration

Set of pressurized filters are required to remove turbidity and suspended solids

from the melt. In the case of carbonatation refining process, second set of filtration is done

through the use of calcium carbonate cake. The cycle ends when filtration rate has

dropped to a low level or when the maximum cake thickness has developed on the filter

elements.

Evaporation

Evaporation process for sugar refining is somehow similar to that of raw sugar

manufacturing. The only difference is that the liquor or the melt has been filtered, cleaned

and more pure which reduce the tendency to produce scales on the vessels.

Crystallization

The process for crystallization for sugar refining is the also same with raw sugar

manufacturing but due to higher purity of melt, crystallization and boiling in the pans are

much faster.

Centrifugal Separation and Drying

Through centrifugal machines, excess molasses and impurities are removed from

the white refined sugars followed by drying process, conditioning and packaging.

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SEPARATION AND PACKAGING

Once the final evaporation and drying process is done, screens separate the

different sized sugar crystals. Large and small crystals are packaged and shipped,

labeled as white, refined, sugar.

2.4 Sugar Refining Capacity and Process

A sugar mill with a refinery can refine from 50 to 60% of the raw sugar production,

which is recommended by SRA (use 55%). The processed raw sugar can be converted

into white sugar up to 92.5% according also to SRA using also the characteristics of the

process steam from raw sugar production. The computation of the refined sugar capacity

will be shown below.

Refined Sugar Capacity = Raw Sugar Capacity x 0.55 x 0.925

tons raw sugar

Refined Sugar Capacity = 1000 x 0.55 x 0.925
day

tons 1 000 kg 1 bag

Refined Sugar Capacity = 508.75, say 509 x x
day 1 ton 50 kg

bags refined sugar

Refined Sugar Capacity =10,180
day

Common products of refined sugar are liquid sugars and white crystal sugars. The

major task of a refinery plant is to remove color and reduce the quantity of non-sucrose

components of the product. Also, filtration process is involved in refining process to get

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rid of the insoluble solids. Figure 2.3 illustrates the carbonation refining process which

uses carbon dioxide and is typically used in the country.

2.4 Steam Requirement

The steam requirement is a major factor for the manufacturing process. It gives
the amount of steam going to the sugar milling and refining process. The summary of
steam requirements for raw sugar and refinery plant is shown in Table 2.1 and 2.2

Table 2.1 Steam Requirement for Raw Sugar Plant

Design Data

Parameters Unit Value

Rated Capacity, C TCD orTCH 10 000 or 416.67

Mixed Juice from Cane, M % 96

Latent Heat, L kCal/kg 525.7

Specific Heat, Cp kCal/kgK 0.92

Juice Temperature Entering °C 82

Juice Temperature Leaving °C 104

Efficiency of Heater, e % 95

Evaporator Steam Required, E kg/TC 321

Vacuum Pans Steam Required, V kg/TC 152.73

Amount of Steam for Heaters

M x C x Cp x ∆T
Q1 =
Lxe

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 0.96 x 416.67 x 0.92 x (104-82)
Q1 =
525.7 x 0.95

tons steam
Q1 =16.21
hour

Amount of Steam for Evaporator

Q2 =E x C

1
Q2 =321 x 416.67 x
1000

tons steam
Q2 =133.75
hour

Amount of Steam for Vacuum Pans

Q3 =V x M x C x (0.50, considering 50% from Exhaust Steam and 50% from the Water Vapor)

1
Q3 =152.73 x 0.96 x 416.67 x x 0.50
1000

tons steam
Q3 =30.54
hour

Total = Q1 + Q2 + Q3 = 16.21 + 133.75 + 30.54 = 180.5

Required Steam for Raw Sugar Plant = 180.5 tons steam/hr

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 Table 2.2 Steam Requirements for Refinery Plant

Equipment Percent Steam per Steam Required,

Refinery Capacity, %
(Percent Steam/Capacity x Capacity in TPH)

Heaters 7.25 0.0725 x 1000/24 = 3.02

Evaporators 12.8 0.128 x 1000//24 = 5.33

Vacuum Pans 73.20 0.7320 x 1000//24 = 30.5

Required Steam for Refining Process = 38.85 tons steam/hr

Sources: ATEMU Manual, Hugot, 1986

The summary of the steam requirements in the manufacturing process both raw
sugar and refinery is shown in Table 2.3. Safety factor of 2% (assumed) is added to the
total process steam to compensate for the unnecessary losses. The process steam
calculated is approximately equal to 206 tons of steam per hour.

Table 2.3 Steam Requirement Summary

Parameters Value, TPH

Raw Sugar Plant 180.51

Sugar refinery Plant 38.85

Safety Factor, 2% 2%

Total Process Steam 223.75

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2.5 Electricity Requirement

Electricity is the main source of power used to energize equipment to the

manufacturing process. The required electricity is essential in both processes for the
equipment to function properly. The summary of required electricity for the raw sugar and
refinery plant is shown in Table 2.4 (see Appendix B for other data). The complete
computation for the required electricity is discussed in Chapter 5.

Table 2.4 Electricity Requirements for Raw Sugar Plant

Design Data

Parameters Unit Value

Rated Capacity, C TCD/TCH 10 000/416.67

Fiber on Cane % 13.5

Tons Fiber per Hour, T TFH 0.135 x 416.67 = 56.25

Power Ratio for Cane Prep., P kW/Amount of Bagasse 60

Percent Power for Knives % 46

Percent Power for Shredder % 54

Mill Requirements, M kW/mill set 1000

Number of Mill Set, N -- 5

Power for Other Machineries, O kW/TCH 15

Electricity for Cane Preparation

E1 =Eknives + Eshredder

E1 =0.46(P x T) x 0.54(P x T)

E1 =0.46(60 x 56.25)+ 0.54(60 x 56.25)

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 E1 =3375 kW

Electricity for Milling Station

E2 =M x N

E2 = 1000 x 5

E2 =5000 kW

Electricity for Other Plant Machineries

E3 =O x C

E3 =15 x 416.67

E3 =6250.05 kW

Total = E1 + E2 + E2 = 3375 + 5000 + 6250.05 = 14,625.05 kW

Raw Sugar Plant Electricity Requirements = 14.63 MW

Sources: ATEMU Manual, Hugot, 1986

Table 2.5 Electricity Requirements for Refinery Plant

Design Data

Parameters Unit Value

Refined Sugar Capacity, R TPD/24 1000/24 = 41.67

Steam Rate, S kg steam/kWh 5

Specific Energy Rqmnt., e kg steam/ kg refined sugar 1.8

Steam for Refinery Plant, P TPH 38.85

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 Steam on Refined Sugar

Q1 =e x R

Q1 =1.8 x 41.67

tons steam
Q1 =75
hour

Steam on Refinery Equipment and Others

Q2 =Q1 - P

Q2 =75-38.85

tons steam
Q2 =36.15
hour

Percent Energy on Refinery Equipment and Others

Q2
%E=
Q1

36.15
%E= x 100 %
75

%E= 48.2 %

Refinery Plant Electricity Requirements

R x e x %E
E=
S

41.67 x 1.8 x 0.482

E=
5

E=7.23 MW

Sources: ATEMU Manual, Hugot, 1986

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 The table 2.6 below shows the power consumption of the plant, where the
generation of power will vary through it. It is approximate to 22 MW for self-sustaining
manufacturing process.

Table 2.6 Power Consumption of the Sugar Manufacturing Plant

Parameters Unit Value

Raw Sugar Plant Requirement MW 14.63

Refinery Plant Requirement MW 7.23

Total MW 21.86 = 22

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