Proceedings of ECOS 2006

Aghia Pelagia, Crete, Greece

July 12-14, 2006

OPTIMIZATION OF THERMAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN SUGAR

CANE FACTORIES

Adriano V. Ensinas; Silvia A. Nebra

Energy Department – State University of Campinas
Miguel A. Lozano; Luis Serra*
Mechanical Engineering Department – University of Zaragoza

ABSTRACT
Sugar and ethanol production from sugar cane in Brazil is one of the most competitive sectors of the
national economy. The sugar production is done basically by several steps: extraction, juice clarification,
evaporation, syrup treatment, sugar boiling, crystallization and centrifugation where the crystal sugar and
the molasses are obtained. This paper presents a thermoeconomic optimization of thermal energy
consumption in a sugar production process looking for the minimum investments and operation costs. Data
from Brazilian sugar factories are used to define the process parameters. The methodology proposed is
used to evaluate the cost of the steam consumed by the factory and the optimal design of the evaporation
system as well as the juice and syrup heaters network.

Key-words: sugar production, thermoeconomic optimization, heat recovery.

NOMENCLATURE Subscripts
bpe boiling point elevation
A Surface of heat exchange (m2) c condensate stream
b Specific exergy (kJ/kg) e equipment
C Monetary Cost (R$/s) evap evaporator
d Operation days (operation days/year) he heater
E Equipment capital cost (R$) in inlet flux
h Specific entalpy (kJ/kg) j juice
i Annual interest rate (%) out outlet flux
j Useful life (years) r reference equipment
k Unit exergetic cost (R$/kJ) s steam stream
m Mass flow rate (kg/s) sat saturation
p Pressure (bar) w water
Pu Purity (%)
Q Heat transfered (kW)
s Specific entropy (kJ/kg K) 1. INTRODUCTION
t Temperature (ºC)
U Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2.K) Sugar and ethanol production from sugar
x Solid mass content (%) cane in Brazil is one of the most competitive
Z Cost of equipment (R$/s) sectors of the national economy. The bagasse
generated by the productive process is used as
Greek Letters fuel in cogeneration systems that offer thermal
Į Scaling exponent and electrical energy for the process. In the last
Ȝ Velocity (m/s) few years many sugar cane factories are
ȟ Amortization factor (s-1) producing surplus of electricity that can be sold
Ȧ Operation factor (operation hours/total for the grid, becoming a new product.
hours)
*
Corresponding author: CPS de Ingenieros, C/ Maria de Luna, 3 – 50018 – Zaragoza – Spain. E-mail: serra@unizar.es

569
 Currently there are more than 300 cane
factories operating all around the country [1].
These units crushed more than 394.4 Mt of cane
in the harvest season 2005/2006, with a total
production of more than 26.7 Mt of sugar and
17.0 Mm3 of ethanol [2].
Sugar production is done basically by several
steps: extraction, clarification, evaporation of the
sugar juice, followed by the syrup treatment,
crystallization and centrifugation where the
crystal sugar and the molasses are obtained.
Steam demand of the process occurs mainly into
the evaporation station that consumes the largest
amount of steam produced by the cogeneration
system. Extraction, juice clarification, syrup
treatment and crystallization also consume steam
that in general came from vapour generated by
the evaporation.
The reduction of steam demands by
production process can increase the surplus of
electricity generated by the cogeneration system,
but its feasibility must be evaluated together with
the process investments cost. Since an economic
point of view, the prices paid for the surplus of
electricity generated and the investments
necessary for new heaters network and
evaporation system of the sugar factory
determine the feasibility of process steam
demand reduction. A thermoeconomic
optimization of the process equipment lay-out
and operation can indicate the most adequate
investment.
The purpose of this paper is to perform a
thermoeconomic optimization of the steam
demand of a crystal sugar factory, analyzing for
that the best design of the evaporation system and
the heaters network. This study intends to analyze
the possible thermal integration of the factory,
considering the costs involved. Data1 of
equipment cost and sugar process parameters
were obtained from sugar cane factories in Brazil.
2. SUGAR PROCESS DESCRIPTION
The crystal sugar production from sugar cane
is done basically by the following steps depicted
in Figure 1:
x Extraction System (I): sugar cane bagasse and
juice are separated. Traditional sugar factories
use mills where juice is extracted by
compression. Another system that operates with
diffusers, extracts raw juice by a process of
lixiviation, using imbibitions hot water and re-
circulation of the juice extracted. Both systems
require previous cane preparation that is done
570
using knives and shredders that operate with
direct drive steam turbines. The plant studied in
this paper operates with a diffuser system that
demands thermal energy for the heating of re-
circulating juice.
The sugar cane bagasse produced at the
extraction is delivered to the cogeneration system
(VII) as indicated in Figure 1, where it is used as
fuel, producing the electricity and steam
consumed by the process.
x Juice Clarification System (II): some non-
sugar impurities are separated by the addition of
some chemical reactants as sulphur, lime, among
others. Juice heating is necessary for the
purification reactions. After heating, the juice
pass through a flash tank, before entering the
clarifier.
x Evaporating System (III): juice is concentrated
in a multiple-effect evaporator. Steam from the
cogeneration system is used as thermal energy
source in the first effect that evaporates an
amount of the water presented in the juice,
producing like that, the heating steam for the next
evaporation effect. The same occurs with the
other effects. The system works with decreasing
pressure due to a vacuum imposed in the last
effect, to produce the difference of temperature
between each effect. The steam generated in each
effect normally is used to attend other steam
demands of the process.
x Syrup Treatment (IV): syrup (concentrated
juice) from evaporation station is purified for
improving the quality of the final product. Firstly
the syrup is heated and then a flotation of the
impurities is done with addition of some chemical
reactants.
x Sugar Boiling, Crystallization and
Centrifugal Separation (V): syrup is boiled in
vacuum pans for crystal formation and then
directed to crystallizers to complete crystal
enlargement. After that, the sugar crystals formed
are separated from molasses into centrifugals.
x Sugar Drying (VI): sugar is dried to reduce
its moisture content to be stored
3. OPTIMIZATION PROCEDURE
The optimization of the thermal energy
consumption in the sugar cane process was
performed with the EES software [3], looking for
the minimum total cost including investments in
equipment (juice heaters and evaporators) and
process steam consumption. The final cost results
are based in a sugar factory that crushes 22,000 t
 cane/day. The reference ambient was considered x capital cost of heaters;
at 1.013 bar of pressure and 25ºC of temperature. x cost of consumed steam;
Electricity for
the process And for the evaporator system the following
parameters were defined:
SUGAR x operation pressure of evaporators;
CANE Bagasse x intermediate juice concentration;
I VII x juice boiling point elevation;
SURPLUS
ELECTRICITY x temperature of boiling juice;
x surface of heat exchange;
II x capital cost of evaporators;
x cost of heating steam consumed;
x cost of vapour bleed and condensates
Vapour Exhausted generated;
Bleeding III Steam

The objective function, defined by Equation 1,

minimize the total cost of the different sub-
IV systems analyzed as a whole, considering for that,
investments in surface of heat exchange in
evaporators and heaters, cost of the exhausted
steam consumed by the evaporator and
V MOLASSE
discounting the cost of the condensates produced
that are assumed as products, being consumed in
other parts of the sugar process:
VI
C total ¦ Z  ¦C  ¦C
e
e
s
s
c
c (1)

CRYSTAL SUGAR 3. 1. Economic Model

3.1.1. Determination of the steam cost

Figure 1: Scheme of a sugar factory with the
cogeneration system.
The optimization would define the best lay-
out of the equipment of heat exchange. The
optimization variables chosen for the heaters and
evaporators were respectively, the difference of
temperature between the heating steam and the
juice/syrup leaving each stage of heating and the
saturation temperature of the steam generated at
the evaporation effects.
Thus, other parameters could be calculated,
defining the best lay-out of the equipment and
finally, the minimum total cost of the system as a
whole.
For the heaters the following parameters were
defined:
x number of heating stages;
x intermediate temperature between the stages
of heating;
x surface of heat exchange;
x type and amount of heating steam necessary
for each stage of heating;
The cost of each stream of process steam
demanded by the process was estimated using the
Theory of Exergetic Cost [4].
Firstly, exergy of the bagasse and sugar cane
were calculated. For the determination of bagasse
exergy, a methodology presented by Sosa-Arnao
and Nebra [5] was adopted. The referred
methodology is a variation of that one proposed
by Szargut et al. [6] for wood, with the necessary
changes in the composition and Low Heat Value
of the fuel. For the bagasse at the reference
environment conditions, its total exergy is equal
to its chemical exergy. The following
composition of the bagasse in mass and dry base
was assumed: C(47%), H(6,5%), O(44%) and
Ash(2,5%) [7]. The exergy of the sugar cane was
obtained as the sum of the bagasse exergy and the
juice exergy calculated following procedures for
sucrose-water solutions presented by Nebra and
Fernández-Parra [8].
Thus, for a determined production cost of the
sugar cane ready to be processed, the unit

571
exergetic cost of the sugar cane could be 3.1.2. Determination of equipment costs
calculated as follows:
ccane The capital cost of equipment could be
k cane (2) calculated using Equation 5. Data used are shown
bcane in Table 2.
The unit exergetic cost of the bagasse used as
fuel at the cogeneration system was assumed to Ze Ee * [ (5)
be the same of the sugar cane that enters the
factory at the extraction system.
So, the live steam produced by the boiler at Where:
D
the cogeneration system had its unit exergetic §A ·
cost obtained using Equation 3. Ee E r ¨¨ e ¸¸ (6)
© Ar ¹
(k cane * m bagasse * bbagasse )  Z boiler
ks (3) i * (1  i ) j
m s * (bs  bw )
(1  i ) j  1
[ (7)
The exhausted steam from the back pressure 86400 * d * Z
steam turbine of the cogeneration and vapour
generated at the evaporators are considered Table 2. Data for determination of equipment
alternatives of heating sources to the process. So, cost.
to perform the optimization, it was assumed as a Parameter Value
hypothesis, that they have the same unit exergetic Evaporator capital cost (103 R$)1 1000
cost of the live steam. The unit exergetic cost of
condensates generated after the steam Juice heater capital cost (103 R$)2 90
condensation at the heat exchangers are also the Evaporator scaling factor 3
0.710
same. 4
So, the cost of each steam stream could be Heater scaling factor 0.774
calculated multiplying the unit exergetic cost by Annual interest rate (%) 15
its exergy (Equation 4). Table 1 shows the
parameters adopted for the determination of the Equipment useful life (years) 15
steam cost. Factory operation days 185
5
Operation factor (%) 90
Cs k s * m s * bs (4)
1
cost of installed evaporator type Robert with 4000m2 of
area [10].
Table 1. Data for determination of steam cost. 2
cost of installed carbon steel shell and tube juice heater
Parameter Value with 300m2 of area [10].
3
Source [11].
Boiler capital cost (106R$)1 25 4
Source [12].
Sugarcane production cost (R$/kg)2 0.03 5
Effective operation hours of the total hours of factory
Available bagasse (kg/t cane)3 228 operation days
Live steam pressure (bar) 63
Live steam temperature (ºC) 480 3.2. Physical Model
Boiler feed water temperature (ºC) 122
3.2.1. Evaporation system
Boiler efficiency (%) 85
1
cost of boiler with following characteristics: 63 bar, 480ºC,
The evaporation system model was composed
200t steam/h including costs of installation and
instrumentation [9]. by a five effect evaporator type Robert that
2
cost of sugar cane ready to be processed at the State of Sao operates with a vacuum at the last effect,
3
Paulo, Brazil in 2006[10]. producing the difference of temperature between
wet base (50% of moisture) each effect. Some restrictions are imposed for the
optimization:
x juice enters at Brix 15º and leave at 63º

572
 x maximum temperature of 115ºC for juice
boiling at the first effect to avoid juice sucrose
loss and coloration [13]
x minimal pressure of 0.16 bar at the last
effect [14].
A heat demand of sugar boiling system
was estimated as 141,6 kWh/t cane [15] and must
be supplied by evaporation system vapour bleed
with a temperature higher than 100ºC, due to
restriction of the process.
The enthalpy of the juice was calculated using
Equation 8 [16]:
hj = (4.1868 – 0.0297*xj +
4.6 10-5 * xj *Puj) * tj + 3.75*10-5 * xj *tj2
The temperature of evaporation (Equation 9)
in each effect is defined as the sum of the
t evap
temperature of saturation of pure water at the
vapour space for a given operation pressure and
the boiling point elevation due the concentration
3.2.3. Area of heat exchange
Heat transfer areas that define the cost of the
evaporators and the heaters can be calculated by
Equation 11.
Q
A (11)
U't
The energy transferred by the heating
steam (Q) is equal to its enthalpy of
vaporization. Equations 12 [18] and 13 [14]
were used to calculate the heat transfer
(8) coefficients of evaporators and heaters
respectively. The juice velocity circulation at
the heaters was assumed as 1.5 m/s.
465
U evap (12)
x j ,out
of the juice (Equation 10) [17]. The effect of U he 1.341 * t * (5  Q
s ,in j ) (13)
boiling point elevation due the hydrostatic effect
of liquid column was neglected.
For the determination of the difference of
tevap = tw,sat + ǻt BPE (9) temperature (ǻt) in the evaporators and
heaters, Equations 14 [14] and 15 were used
ª 273  t w, sat 2 x j ,out 2 º respectively.
't BPE 6,064 * 10 5 « »*
«¬ 374,3  t w, sat 
0 , 38
»¼ 't evap t s ,in  t evap (14)
5,84 *10 x
7
j , out  40  0,00072
2

(10) t s  t j ,in   t s  t j ,out 
3.2.2. Heaters Network 't he (15)
§ t s  t j ,in ·
ln¨ ¸
The heater network includes the following ¨t t ¸
© s j , out ¹
sub-systems:
A. Diffuser;
3.3. Base Case
B. Juice Clarification;
C. Syrup Treatment.
A base case is assumed to compare and
Data of each heater sub-systems are validate the results of the optimization procedure.
presented in Table 3. The purity of the heated Data of the evaporation system design was
flow is considered constant at 85%. obtained from a real cane sugar factory [15] and
is composed by a five effect evaporator type
Table 3. Data of heaters sub-systems. Robert working at the following pressure in each
Sub-System m j Xj tj,in tj,out effect: 1.66; 1.32; 0.98; 0.50; 0.17 bar of
(kg/s) (%) (ºC) (ºC) absolutely pressure.
A Diffuser1 928.4 15 80.0 92.0 As occurs in many sugar factories in Brazil,
B Juice 340.4 15 62.0 103.0 for this base case, there is not an optimal thermal
Clarification2 integration of the process and all the juice and
C Syrup 70.7 63 Evaporator 80.0 syrup heaters of the factory consume vapour
Treatment outlet generated at the first effect of evaporation that
1
raw juice re-circulated in thee different stages during the attends the heat demand of sugar boiling system
diffusion [15]
2
too. Thus, the heaters network is formed by one
10% of the clarified juice is re-circulated[10]

573
heater in each sub-system (Difuser, Juice Table 5. Optimized heaters network.
Clarification and Syrup Treatment). Area Heating Heating Tj,in Tj,out
(m2) Steam Steam (ºC) (ºC)
4. RESULTS Consumed Flow
Hate
Using the optimization procedure described (kg/s)
above, the optimum evaporation system and A1 5108 V2 19.16 80.0 92.0
heaters network of the sugar factory can be B1 1925 V4 2.77 62.0 66.9
determined. Table 4 shows the unit exergetic B2 3173 V3 8.49 66.9 81.7
costs calculated. B3 3125 V2 7.86 81.7 95.1
B4 673 V1 4.75 95.1 103.0
Table 4. Unit exergetic costs determined. C1 402 V4 0.93 55.0 65.8
Unit Exergetic Cost(10-6R$/kJ) C2 387 V3 1.27 65.8 80.0
Sugar Cane 5.773
Steam 21.426 As it can be noted in Table 5, after the
thermoeconomic optimization a determined
The Figure 2 shows the lay-out of the distribution of the vapour generated by the
equipment optimized at the factory. In this figure evaporation system are obtained. The new lay-out
the proposed sub-systems can be seen, including promotes a better use of vapour from each
also the distribution of the vapour bleeding from evaporation stages, contributing for a higher
the evaporator. The detailed parameters of each thermal integration of the factory, with a minimal
heater sub-section are shown in Table 5. cost.

A1 Juice/Syrup
Steam
Condensate

B4 B3 B2 B1

C2 C1

Condeser
V1 V2 V3 V4

Exhausted
Steam
1stEffect 2ndEffect 3rdEffect 4thEffect 5thEffect

Juice Syrup

Figure 2: Lay-out of the optimized system.

The higher cost of the exhausted steam from temperatures for the heating demands, reducing
the cogeneration system had limited the use of it the total cost of the sub-systems.
as heating source for the heaters in an optimum The consumption of exhausted steam from
design. The available vapour bleeds had adequate the cogeneration system decreased when

574
compared with the base case (Table 6), once it in new heaters and the total cost decreases for
was substituted by the vapour bleed. each sub-system.

Table 6. Exhausted Steam Consumption. Table 9. Costs for the optimized case.
Exhausted Steam Flow Rate Sub-system Equipment Heating Total
(kg/s) (R$/h) Steam1 Sub-
Base Case 137.7 (R$/h) System
(R$/h)
Optimized Case 123.4
Diffuser 35 653 687
Juice
The evaporation system was designed to have Clarification 71 773 844
the minimum cost at the optimized case, being its Syrup
parameters those presented in Table 7. Treatment 10 60 69
Evaporator 350 703 1,053
Table 7. Optimized evaporation system. TOTAL 465 2,189 2,654
Effect Area p tw;sat ǻtbpe tevap 1
It is considered the reduction of cost due the
(m2) (bar) (ºC) (ºC) (ºC) production of vapour and/or condensates that are used in
1 19078 1.69 115.0 0.5 115.5 other parts of the factory
2 4530 0.92 97.2 0.8 98.0
3 5400 0.57 84.7 1.1 85.8 The higher reduction of cost was obtained at
4 5183 0.32 70.3 1.6 71.9 the evaporation system with a difference of 222
5 7851 0.16 55.0 3.0 58.0 R$/h between the base and optimized case. This
represents 17% of economy in this sub-system
The optimum design of the evaporation and 46% of the total cost reduction obtained. The
system and the heaters are related with a economy was reached mainly due the reduction
minimum cost of investments in equipment and of exhausted steam consumed at the first effect
steam consumed. The final results for base and that decreased 14,3 kg/s or 10%.
optimized cases in each sub-system can be seen The clarification that contribute with 29% of
in Table 8 and 9 respectively. the total reduction cost, decreased its cost in 14%
or 140 R$/h. The use of vapour from the 1st, 2nd,
Table 8. Costs for the base case. 3rd and 4th effect reduced its total cost
Sub-system Equipment Heating Total considerably, even with the increase of
(R$/h) Steam1 Sub- investments in heaters that were more than 4
(R$/h) System times that one of the base case.
(R$/h) The optimization at the diffuser reduced 20%
Diffuser 14 773 787 of the total cost substituting the use of V1 in the
Juice base case for V2 in the optimized one and the
Clarification 17 968 984 syrup treatment contributed with 5% of the total
Syrup reduction.
Treatment 2 91 93
Evaporator 346 930 1,276 5. CONCLUSIONS
TOTAL 378 2,761 3,139
1 The thermoeconomic optimization presented
It is considered the reduction of cost due the
production of vapor and/or condensates that are used in other in this paper showed to be very useful to analyze
parts of the factory. the cost generation on designing the heaters
network and evaporation system of a sugar
As it can be seen at Tables 8 and 9, after the factory, looking for the minimum investment and
thermoeconomic optimization performed, a operation costs, choosing like that, the best
reduction of the total cost was obtained in each alternative for thermal integration of the factory.
sub-system when compared with the base case. The evaporation system represents the largest
The investment in equipment increased, as part of the total cost of the factory in thermal
heating steam of lower quality is used at the energy consumption. Its investment cost is
heaters, requiring higher surfaces of heat substantially higher than the heaters showing the
exchange. On the other hand the reduction of importance of its optimum design. Moreover it
consumed steam cost compensates its investment

575
produces the heating source for the other sub-
systems, influencing their designs either.
The optimization of the thermal energy
consumption in sugar factories can also be
important to evaluate the cost of process steam
demand reduction. The decision of best the
technology to be implemented in the
cogeneration system depends of the quantity of
steam consumed by the process and the analysis
of both systems must be made together looking
for the better alternative for the factory as a
whole.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge Usina
Cruz Alta, Guarani and Santa Isabel engineers,
technicians and managers for available process
data and FAPESP, CAPES and CNPq for the
financial support to do this study.
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