MINI PROJECT REPORT

(KMBN 252)

Dr A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM TECHNICAL

UNIVERSITY LUCKNOW

Industrial Report On
PARLE-G

UTTAM INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

RUNAKTA ,AGRA

Submitted By:- Naman Chopra

MBA 2nd Sem.

CONTENTS OF THE REPORT:

Abstract
L.H.sugar factory’s profile

Sugar manufacturing

Process chart
The Energy Aspects
 Millhouse
 Boilerhouse
 Powerhouse
 Clarification and boiling house:
 Boiling and curing house
 Cogeneration power
Molasses
Challenges for sugar industry

 Conclusions and suggestions

 INDIAN SUGAR INDUSTRY - A STRONG INDUSTRIAL BASE FOR
RURAL INDIA

ABSTRACT

Indian sugar industry, second largest agro-based processing industry afte the
cotton textiles industry in country, has a lion's share in accelerating
industrialization process and bringing socio-economic changes in under
developed rural areas. Sugar industry covers around 7.5% of total rural
population and provides employment to 5 lakh rural people. About 4.5 crore
farmers are engaged in sugarcane cultivation in Inda. Sugar mills (cooperative,
private, and public) have been instrumental in initiating a number of
entrepreneurial activities in rural India. Present paper is an attempt as to review
progress of sugar industry in India, understand it's problems and challenges in
context of ongoing liberalization process. Indian sugar industry can be a global
leader provided it comes out of the vicious cycle of shortage and surplus of
sugarcane, lower sugarcane yield, lower sugar recovery, ever increasing
production costs and mounting losses. It needs quality management at all levels
of activity to enhance productivity and production. Attention is required on cost
minimization and undertaking by product processing activities.

K.S.SUGAR FACTORY’S PROFILE

K.S Sugar Factories Ltd. is located in Bisalpur Road in Shahjanpur (U.P.).

Nearest Railway Station is Bisalpur at the distance of 1.5 km. The factory
started its crushing operation in the year 1910. The licensed crushing capacity
of the plant was 300 TPD, 650 TPD. In 1928’ 1300 TPD in 1932-33, 3500
TPD in 1986-87, 5500 TPD in 2001-02, 6000 TPD in 2002-03, 7200 TPD in
2004-05, 8000 TPD in 2005-06, 10000 TPD in 2006-07 and now the capacity
of the plant is 11000 TPD 49522
Some important data related to K.S.S.F. is:

 Cane Crushing Capacity : 10,000 TPD

 Process Used : Double Sulphitation
 Steam Generation : 245 Tonnes/Hour
 Total Power Generation(installed) : 46 MWH
 Normal Power Generation : 40 MWH
 Avg. Exported Power : 25 MWH
 Plant Consumption : 15 MWH
  Avg. Sugar Production : 9000 Quintals/Day
 Avg. Molasses production : 4000 Quintals/Day
 Avg. Press Mud Prodution : 3500 Quintals/Day

SUGAR MANUFACTURING

The History

It is thought that cane sugar was first used by man in Polynesia from where it
spread to India. In 510 BC the Emperor Darius of what was then Persia invaded
India where he found "the reed which gives honey without bees".
The secret of cane sugar, as with many
other of man's discoveries, was kept a
closely guarded secret whilst the finished
product was exported for a rich profit.

It was the major expansion of the Arab

peoples in the seventh century AD that led
to a breaking of the secret. When they
invaded Persia in 642 AD they
found sugar cane being grown and learnt how sugar was made. As their
expansion continued they established sugar production in other lands that they
conquered including North Africa and Spain.

Sugar was only discovered by western Europeans as a result of the Crusades in

the 11th Century AD. Crusaders returning home talked of this "new spice" and
how pleasant it was. The first sugar was recorded in England in 1099. The
subsequent centuries saw a major expansion of western European trade with the
East, including the importation of sugar. It is recorded, for instance, that sugar
was available in London at "two shillings a pound" in 1319 AD. This equates to
about US$100 per kilo at today's prices so it was very much a luxury.

In the 15th century AD, European sugar was refined in Venice, confirmation that
even then when quantities were small, it was difficult to transport sugar as a food
grade product. In the same century, Columbus sailed to the Americas, the "New
World". It is recorded that in 1493 he took sugar cane
plants to grow in the Caribbean. The climate there was so advantageous for the
growth of the cane that an industry was quickly established.

By 1750 there were 120 sugar refineries operating in Britain. Their combined
output was only 30,000 tons per annum. At this stage sugar was still a luxury and
vast profits were made to the extent that sugar was called "white gold".
Governments recognised the vast profits to be made from sugar and taxed it
highly. In Britain for instance, sugar tax in 1781 totalled
£326,000, a figure that had grown by 1815 to £3,000,000. This situation was to
stay until 1874 when the British government, under Prime Minister Gladstone,
abolished the tax and brought sugar prices within the means of the ordinary
citizen.

Sugar beet was first identified as a source of sugar in 1747. No doubt the vested
interests in the cane sugar plantations made sure that it stayed as no more than
a curiosity, a situation that prevailed until the Napoleonic wars at the start of the
19th century when Britain blockaded sugar imports to continental Europe. By
1880 sugar beet had replaced sugar cane as the main source of sugar on
continental Europe. Those same vested interests probably delayed the
introduction of beet sugar to England until the First World War when Britain's
sugar imports were threatened.

One of the most important examples of governmental actions is within the

European Union where sugar prices are so heavily subsidised that over 5 million
tons of white beet sugar have to be exported annually and yet a million tons of
raw cane sugar are imported from former colonies. This latter activity is a form of
overseas aid which is also practised by the USA. The EU's over-production and
subsequent dumping has now been subjected to GATT requirements which
should see a substantial cut-back in production over the next few years.

An interactive World Map of Sugar production

 Introduction

Sugar is made by some plants to store energy that they don't need straight away,
rather like animals make fat. People like sugar for its sweetness and its energy
so some of these plants are grown commercially to extract the sugar:
Sugar is produced in 121 Countries and global production now exceeds 120
Million tons a year. Approximately 70% is produced from sugar cane, a very tall
grass with big stems which is largely grown in the tropical countries. The
remaining 30% is produced from
sugar beet, a root crop resembling a large parsnip
grown mostly in the temperate zones of the north.

What we call sugar, the chemist knows as 'sucrose',

one of the family of sugars otherwise known as
saccharides in the grouping called carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates, as the name implies, contain
carbon and hydrogen plus
oxygen in the same ratio as in water. The saccharides is a large family with the
general formula CnH2nOn. The simplest of the sugars is glucose, C6H12O6,
although its physical chemistry is not that simple because it occurs in two distinct
forms which affect some of its properties. Sucrose, C12H22O11, is a
disaccharide, a condensation molecule made up of two glucose molecules [less
a water molecule to make the chemistry work].

The process whereby plants make sugars is photosynthesis. The plant takes in
carbon dioxide from the air though pores in its leaves and absorbs water through
its roots. These are combined to make sugar using energy from the sun and with
the help of a substance called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is green which allows it to
absorb the sun's energy more readily and which, of course, gives the plants'
leaves their green colour. The reaction of photosynthesis can be written as the
following chemical equation when sucrose is being made:

12 CO2 + 11 H2 O = C12 H22 O11 + 12 O2

carbon dioxide + water = sucrose + oxygen

This shows that oxygen is given off during the process of photosynthesis.
Historically, sugar was only produced from sugar cane and then only in relatively
small quantities. This resulted in it being considered a great luxury, particularly in
Europe where cane could not be grown. The history of man and sugar is a
subject in its own right but suffice to say that, even today, it isn't easy to ship food
quality sugar across the world so a high proportion of cane sugar is made in two
stages. Raw sugar is made where the sugar cane grows and white sugar is
made from the raw sugar in the country where it is needed. Beet sugar is easier
to purify and most is grown where it is needed so white sugar is made in only
one stage.

PROCESS CHART
SugarCane

Sugar cane is a genus of tropical grasses which requires strong sunlight and
abundant water for satisfactory growth. The Latin names of the species include
Saccharum officinarum, S. spontaneum, S. barberi and S. sinense. As with most
commercial crops, there are many cultivars available to the cane farmer, usually
hybrids of several species. Some varieties grow up to 5 metres tall.

The cane itself looks rather like bamboo cane and it is here that the sucrose is
stored. In the right climate the cane will grow in 12 months and, when cut, will re-
grow in another 12 months provided the roots are undisturbed.

A typical sugar content for mature cane would be 10% by weight but the figure
depends on the variety and varies from season to season and location to
location. Equally, the yield of cane from the field varies considerably but a rough
and ready overall value to use in estimating sugar production is 100 tons of cane
per hectare or 10 tons of sugar per hectare.

SugarBeet
Sugar beet is a temperate climate biennial root crop.
It produces sugar during the first year of growth in
order to see it over the winter and then flowers and
seeds in the second year. It is therefore sown in
spring and harvested in the first autumn/early winter.
As for sugar cane, there are many cultivars
available to the beet farmer. The beet stores the
sucrose in the bulbous root which bears a strong
resemblance
to a fat parsnip.

A typical sugar content for mature beets is 17% by weight but the value depends
on the variety and it does vary from year to year and location to location. This is
substantially more than the sucrose content of mature cane but the yields of beet
per hectare are much lower than for cane so that the expected sugar production
is only about 7 tons per hectare.
 The World of Sugar Production : Mid 1990's

AUSTRALIA

Exports: 4.7 million tons

Production: 5.5 million tons
Population: 19 million
Per Capita 45 kg
Consumption:

BRAZIL

Exports: 6 million tons

Production: 14.5 million tons
Population: 167 million
Per Capita 48 kg
Consumption:

E.U.

Exports: 5.5 million tons

Extraction
There are several important aspects to extraction which involve the energy
balance of the factory, the efficiency of extraction and therefore ultimately the
profitability of operations:

 The manager needs to process the cane as soon as possible if sugar

losses are to be avoided yet needs to have a sufficient supply in storage
for times when cutting and transport are stopped, whether deliberately or
not. Typically, cane is processed within 24 hours of cutting;
 Cane preparation is critical to good sugar extraction, particularly with
diffusion extraction. This is achieved with rotating knives and sometimes
hammer mills called "shredders". However shredding requires extra energy
and more equipment;
 The extraction is actually conducted as a counter-current process using
fresh hot water at one end being pumped in the opposite direction to the
cane. The more water that is used, the more sugar is extracted but the
more dilute the mixed juice is and hence the more energy that is required
to evaporate the juice;
 The more accurately that the mills are set [adjusted], the drier is the
residual fibre and hence the less sugar remaining in the fibre;

A typical mixed juice from extraction will contain perhaps 15% sugar and the
residual fibre, called bagasse, will contain 1 to 2% sugar, about 50% moisture
and some of the sand and grit from the field as "ash". A typical cane might
contain 12 to 14% fibre which, at 50% moisture content gives about 25 to 30 tons
of bagasse per 100 tons of cane or 10 tons of sugar.

Harvesting

Cane grows very tall in good growing regions - certainly up to 3 metres/10

feet tall - and still has some green
leaves when ripe although most leaves
have dried off by then. Where possible
the cane is fired before harvesting to
remove the dead leaf material and
some of the waxy coating. The fire
burns at quite high temperatures but is
over very quickly so that the cane
and its sugar
content are not harmed.

In some areas burning is not permitted because of the nuisance value to local
communities of the smoke and carbon specs that are released. However there is
no environmental impact, the CO2 released being a very small proportion of the
CO2 fixed with photosynthesis during growth and the improved sugar extraction
meaning that less cane needs to be grown on fewer acres to satisfy the world's
sugar demand.

Harvesting is done either by hand or by machine. Hand cut cane -- cane cutting
is a hard and dirty job but can employ lots of people in areas where jobs are
scarce -- is cut at about ground level, the top green leaves are cropped off and
then the stalk is bundled whole. Once a complete bundle has been assembled it
is removed from the field with a light cart and may then be transferred to a
larger
vehicle for transport to the mill.

Most machine-cut cane is chopped into

short lengths but is otherwise handled
in a similar way as hand cut cane.
Machines can only be used where land
conditions are suitable and the
topography is relatively flat. In addition
the capital cost of machines and the
loss of jobs
caused makes this solution unsuitable for many sugar estates.

Evaporation
The mixed juice from extraction is preheated prior to liming so that the
clarification is optimal. The milk of lime, calcium hydroxide or Ca(OH)2, is
metered into the juice to hold the required ratio and the limed juice enters a
gravitational settling tank: a clarifier. The juice travels through the clarifier at a
very low superficial velocity so that the solids settle out and clear juice exits.

The mud from the clarifier still contains valuable sugar so it is filtered on rotary
vacuum filters where the residual juice is extracted and the mud can be washed
before discharge, producing a sweet water . The juice and the sweet water are
returned to process.

The clear juice has probably only 15% sugar content but saturated sugar liquor,
required before crystallisation can occur, is close to 80% sugar content.
Evaporation in a steam heated multiple effect evaporator is the best way of
approaching the saturated condition because low pressure water vapours can be
produced for heating duties elsewhere in the factory.

The evaporator sets the steam consumption of the factory and is designed to
match the energy balance of the entire site: the manager wants to avoid burning
auxiliary fuel and equally wants to avoid paying to dispose of surplus bagasse.
The greater the number of effects, the less steam is required to drive the first
effect. Each subsequent effect is heated by the vapour from the previous effect
so has to be operated at a lower temperature and therefore lower pressure.
 Boiling

Physical chemistry
assists with sugar
purification during the
crystallisation process
because there is a natural
tendency for the sugar
crystals to form as pure
sucrose, rejecting the non-
sugars. Thus, when the
sugar crystals are grown in
the mother liquor they tend
to be pure and the mother
liquor becomes more
impure. Most remaining
non-sugar in the product is
contained in the coating of
mother liquor left on the
crystals

The mother liquor still

contains valuable sugar of
course so the
crystallisation is repeated several times. However non-sugars inhibit the
crystallisation. This is particularly true of other sugars such as glucose and
fructose which are the breakdown products of sucrose. Each subsequent step
therefore becomes more difficult until one reaches a point where it is no longer
viable to continue.

The crystallisation step itself - a "boiling" - takes place in a vacuum pan: a large
closed kettle with steam heated pipes. [In practice the heating is done with a low
pressure water vapour from the evaporator.] Some modern pans are continuous
flow devices but most are batch devices which go through a discrete cycle and
are then emptied for a new boiling. A typical cycle might be 4 hours long. The
mixture of crystals and mother liquor from a boiling, called the "massecuite", is
dropped into a receiving tank called a crystalliser where it is cooled down and
the crystals continue to grow. This
also releases the pan for a new boiling. From the crystalliser the massecuite is
fed to the centrifuges.

In a raw sugar factory it is normal to conduct three boilings. The first or "A" boiling
produces the best sugar which is sent to store. The "B" boiling takes longer and
the retention time in the crystalliser is also longer if a reasonable crystal size is
to be achieved. Some factories re-melt the B sugar to provide part of the A
boiling feedstock, others use the crystals as seed for the A boilings and others
mix the B sugar with the A sugar for sale. The "C" boiling takes proportionally
longer than the B boiling and considerably longer to crystallise. The sugar is
usually used as seed for B boilings and the rest is re-melted.

Various boilers which are used here in L.H.S.F. are:

THERMAX BOILER

 CAPACITY : 45 TPH
 WORK PRESSURE : 21 Kg/cm square
 STEAM TEMRERATURE : 340 deg C
 HEATING SURFACE : 2204 m square
 INSTALLATION YEAR : 1991

LIPI BOILER

 CAPACITY : 20 TPH
 WORK PRESSURE : 21 Kg/cm square
 STEAM TEMRERATURE : 345 deg C
 HEATING SURFACE : 1026 m square
 INSTALLATION YEAR : 1998

WIL BOILER

 CAPACITY : 45 TPH
 WORK PRESSURE : 45 Kg/cm square
 STEAM TEMRERATURE : 445 deg C
 HEATING SURFACE : 2106 m square
 INSTALLATION YEAR : 2001
 SISTON BOILER

 CAPACITY : 120 TPH

 WORK PRESSURE : 67 Kg/cm square
 STEAM TEMRERATURE : 525 deg C
 HEATING SURFACE : 5359 m square
 INSTALLATION YEAR : 2007

The Energy Aspects

The steam is raised in bagasse fired boilers which usually have a secondary fuel
to accommodate imbalances in bagasse supply and steam or power demand.
The factory designer attempts to balance the site such that bagasse is neither left
over nor insufficient: any secondary fuel costs money and a large surplus of
bagasse may cost money to dispose. Balancing is done by selecting the right mix
of turbine and electric drives for major equipment and selecting the pressure of
the steam to give the efficiency required. In many cases this does not recognise
the full energy value of the bagasse and is therefore wasteful in an overall
sense. Today, more and more factories are considering power export as another
by-product of sugar production. To do this they are improving the efficiency of
their thermodynamic cycles and converting equipment drives to optimise power
output.

Factories are frequently in very undeveloped places and have no connection to

an external power supply. This requires special techniques to start the factory
and means that any breakdown in the power house impacts on the entire
neighbourhood. Wives soon tell their husbands what happened to dinner when
their spouses lost power!

Sucrose extraction from beets is easier than with cane for several reasons of
which keeping quality and diffusion characteristics are the two most important.
Stored correctly, beet will keep for several weeks after harvesting without
substantial loss of sucrose content. It is generally harvested or stored on the
farm and delivered to the factory up to
48 hours before harvesting. In countries with very cold winters, however, this can
be a much longer time with large ventilated piles kept at the factory to avoid
process disruptions caused by an inability to harvest or transport the crop. The
beets need protection from frost and from overheating in the piles but as a
biennial plant it expects to survive over winter in order to come to life in spring
and grow to seed.

Unlike cane extraction, it is important to avoid rupturing the cells of the beet
because the sucrose is readily diffused out of whole cells and extraction can
therefore be achieved preferentially. This results in a high purity juice without a
lot of the cell material and other non-sugars found in cane juice. The slicing is
therefore done with sharp knives which cut a V section slice of 4 to 5 mm
thickness. The slices, known as cossets in some parts of the world, look
somewhat like "potato sticks".

A typical raw juice from diffusion will contain perhaps 14% sugar and the
residual pulp will contain 1 to 2% and a total of 8 to 12% solids.

Pressing

The spent slices are de-sweetened in large screw presses where a variable
pitch screw pushes the pulp at ever increasing pressure through a perforated,
usually conical tube. The juice flows away and the pressed pulp, at around
70% moisture content, discharges from the end of the tube. Molasses is often
added to the pressed pulp before drying in order to provide a higher sugar
content animal feed. Typically 2 tons of pressed pulp and 0.4 tons of molasses
are dried to make 1 ton of dried pulp at 10% moisture content. The dried pulp is
then extruded into pellets
to increase the density of the product and make it easier to store and handle.

The drying process is energy intensive, using about 1/3 of the total factory fuel
consumption. Generally driers are large rotating drums with air at 600 to 900 °C
used to drive the water out of the pulp. Some new driers use steam so that the
water driven off can be used as heat in the sugar manufacturing process.

Carbonatation

Carbonatation is achieved by adding milk of lime [calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2]

to the liquor and bubbling carbon dioxide through the mixture. The gas, which is
obtained from the manufacture of the lime in the first place, reacts with the lime
to form fine crystalline particles of calcium carbonate which occlude the solids.
To obtain a stable floc, the pH and temperature of the reaction are carefully
controlled. Beet factories use much more lime than cane factories, some 1 to
3% of CaO on beet is used.

The filtration is undertaken with rotary leaf filters where the liquor is pumped
from the outside of the leaf to the middle where the clear liquor is collected or
in a clarifier where settling occurs. As the layer of floc builds up in a leaf filter it
increase the pressure drop across the system until the filter is effectively
choked and taken off line for cleaning. The clarifier is run continuously
however. The lime mud that is collected from either method is still wet with sugar
liquor so it is de-sweetened by slurrying with water
- the resultant sweet water is used elsewhere in the process - and re-filtering it to
a mud with 50% or less moisture. The mud is then dumped or used as lime on
fields.

The efficiency of the factory depends substantially on the use of multiple effect
evaporation, as with the raw cane sugar factory. It is even more important for
the beet factory because there is no surplus fibre available to porvide fuel for
the power house. The
greater the number of effects, the less steam is required to drive the first effect.
Each subsequent effect is heated by the vapour from the previous effect so has
to be operated at a lower temperature and therefore lower pressure. In is not
unusual to see 6 and sometimes 7 effects in a beet factory although many cane
factories only have 3 or 4 effects.

Decolourisation

Granular activated carbon is the modern equivalent of "bone char", a carbon

granule made from animal bones. Today's carbon is made by specially
processing mineral carbon to give a granule which is highly active but also very
robust: it can withstand the mechanical abrasion that results from transporting it
around the plant.

The carbon is used in the process in very large columns, perhaps

10 or more metres high. The sugar liquor, at about 65% dry solids, is pumped
through 2 columns in series. Because of limitations in distributing the liquor
across the width of large columns it is quite normal to split the total liquor flow
into three or more parallel streams, each of which passes through a pair of
columns. The first column of the pair has been in use for some time while the
second column is fresher. When the carbon in the first column reaches is
practical limit of absorption, that column is switched out of line, the second
column becomes the first column and a column with fresh carbon becomes the
second column. In a typical refinery with say 3 streams of liquor, a column will
come off line every three days so any one column has a life of 18 days of which 9
are hard working in the first column position.

Decolourisation with granular activated carbon typically achieves 90%

effectiveness: a 1200 colour liquor entering the system will depart at about 120
colour.
 MILLHOUSE:

Mill house is the cane crushing unit which consists of cane carrier, cane cutter
having cutting knives, milling tandem, bagasse carrier and conveyor. Cane
feeding to the cane carrier is done by unloaders and feeder table. As the cane
carrier moves, the cane kicker evens out cane load in the cane carrier and
then two sets of cane knives cut the cane into small pieces. This process of
cane cutting is called 'cane preparation. These cane pieces then, pass through
different mills and the juice is extracted. The mills are driven by D.C.motors.
The residue which comes out of the mill after extraction of juice is called
bagasse.

Various milling units used in LHSF are :-

 Mill GRPF 500kwatt d.c., 1000kw d.c.

 Mill GRPF 522kwatt dc.
o 900kwatt variable frequency drive
 Mill GRPF hydraulic drive 900kwatt v.f.d.
 Mill GRPF 400h.p hydraulic drive
o 900kwatt v.f.d
 Mill GRPF 500kwatt v.f.d
o 900kwatt v.

BOILERHOUSE:
Boiler generates steam by burning the bagasse. The steam is used in
powerhouse, boiling house, curing house. The steam required by the
Sulphitation process varies from 42 - 45 % on cane crushed per hour.

POWERHOUSE:
The high pressure steam generated by the boiler is utilized for production of
power by the turbo-alternators. The power produced is used for captive needs
and the surplus power is exported to the government grid. The low pressure
steam that comes out from the turbo alternator is utilized for boiling the
extracted juice.
 CLARIFICATION AND BOILING HOUSE:

The juice extracted by the mills is measured by juice flow system. The
measured juice is heated in juice heater in two stages. First the juice is
heated by the vapours from fourth and third bodies of evaporator in
different heaters. This heating is called primary heating. The heated juice is
treated with milk of lime and sulphur-di-oxide to coagulate maximum
impurities and sent for secondary heating. The secondary heating is done
with vapours from second body of evaporator and vapours from the first
body or exhaust steam. The treated juice is passed to clarifier, where in
clear juice is removed from the top and settled mud at the bottom is
separated. To extract sugar from the mud, it is taken to vacuum filter in
which juice and filter cake are separated. Juice is taken back to process
and the mud is disposed as solid waste. Clear juice from clarifier is taken
to evaporator for evaporating its water content. First body is heated by
exhaust steam, and other bodies by the vapours of the previous body. T he
total water evaporated in the evaporator is 75-80 % percent. The juice after
evaporation is called as syrup. This syrup is normally of 60 % solids of
its total weight. The syrup is then sulphited in syrup Sulphitation tower.

BOILING AND CURING HOUSE

Sulphited syrup is taken to pan floor for making sugar crystal. Three massecuites
boiling systems is normally adopted, in which, A, B and C Massecuites are
boiled. A-massecuites is formed by boiling syrup, sugar melt ,‘A’ light molasses
and on ‘B’-single cured sugar as seed. This A- Massecuite is boiled till it attains
the required size of sugar crystal and it is dropped into crystallizers and cooled.
After exhaustion of sugar in solution, the ‘A’ massecuite is passed on to the
centrifugals for separating sugar crystals from the massecuite. The separated 'A'
sugar is bagged after drying.‘A’-Light and ‘A’-Heavy molasses are pumped to pan
floor and are used for making ‘A’- and ‘B’-Massecuite respectively

‘B’-Massecuite boiled in ‘B’ pans is dropped into B- Crystallizers and then it is

cured in ‘B’-Centrifugal machines. ‘B’-heavy molasses and ‘B’-single cured sugar
are obtained separately. ‘B’-single cured sugar is used as seed for A massecuite.
‘B’-heavy molasses is used for making ‘C’-Massecuite in
C-pans. ‘C’-Massecuite is dropped into ‘C’-Crystallizers where it is cooled. ‘C’-
Massecuite is then taken to ‘C’-fore worker centrifugal machines for curing. Final
molasses and ‘C’-single cured sugar are obtained. 'C' Single cured sugar is again
cured in another centrifugal machine in which ‘C’- double cured sugar and ‘C’-
light molasses are obtained. ‘C’-light molasses are taken to pan floor and is used
in making ‘C’-Massecuite. ‘C’-double cured sugar is melted and is used in
making 'A' Massecuite.

Sugar discharged from 'A' Machine is dropped on to grass hopper conveyors. By

passing hot air in hoppers the sugar is dried and taken to grader in which powder
and rori’s are separated. The required grade sugar is bagged.

COGENERATION POWER

Cogeneration involves the use of high pressure Boilers for producing steam and
Turbo generators for generating power. The high pressure steam passes through
the turbine and generates power. The low pressure steam from the turbine is
used in the processing of sugar. This process of utilization of steam for
generating power and for processing of sugar is called cogeneration.

This cogeneration plant is the first plant in India to install Air cooled condensers
instead of water cooled condensers for its turbines. Even though the Air cooled
condensers incur a much higher investment cost than
the water cooled condensers, it is environment friendly and they totally eliminate
the use of water. This is an important environment feature given the scarcity of
water in the region and a positive step towards water conservation.

MOLASSES

The history of the Word ‘molasses’ ( ‘Melasse’ in German and Dutch) is not
mentioned in Etymological dictionaries since it is quite definitely and clearly
derived from the Romanic languages.
The term ‘molasses’ is applied to the final effluent obtained in the preparation of
sugar by repeated crystallization.The amount of molasses obtained and its
quality (composition) provide information about the nature of the beets (local
conditions of growth and effects of the weather) and the processing in the sugar
factory, such as the efficiency of the juice clarification, the method of
crystallization during boiling, and the separation of the sugar crystals from the
low-grade massecuite.
If the concept molasses is to be strictly defined it is necessary to distinguish
between theoretical and practical molasses. The theoretically final molasses is a
mixture of sugar, nonsugars and water, from which no saccharose crystallizes
under any conceivable physical and technically optimum conditions, with no
regard to time. If relatively more favourable conditions for crystallization are
maintained (low water content, low temperature, long crystallization time, thin
layers of the syrup film) the crystallization might be so extended that with
intensive centrifugation of the molasses a quotient (Q) of 49 would be attainable.
Q represents the percentage of sugar in the total solid content of the molasses.

The lower the purity or purity coefficient, the more closely a syrup
approaches theoretical molasses. Unusual specimens of molasses,
produced in experimental studies, have quotients from 45 to 50. The practically
obtainable molasses is the end syrup from which, with
maintenance of the technical conditions promoting crystallization, no
significant additional amounts of saccharose can be recovered by further
concentration. In this sense molasses with purity quotients above 64 are no
longer true molasses they are crystallisable syrups.

The objective of the sugar industry is to produce molasses whose purity is as low
as possible. Commercial molasses ordinarily have a quotient around 60, i.e.
approximately 48 % sugar is present in molasses whose solids
content is 80%. (Q denotes purity quotient of molasses; S is sugar content; T
represents dry substance.) Efforts to understand and master the conditions
leading to exhausted molasses are as old as the sugar industry itself. Since the
formation of molasses and the problems of crystallization of sugar are closely
related, a clear understanding of the influences of the nonsugar substances on
the crystallization of the saccharose from aqueous solutions simplifies the study
of the formation of molasses. The many studies along these lines can be divided
fundamentally into two categories.

(i) Mechanical theory of molasses formation

This old theory is based on the decrease in the rate of crystallization which
depends on the speed with which the dissolved sugar molecules are transported
out of the liquid on to the crystal surface as well as on the rate at which they are
built into the crystal lattice.

(ii) Chemical theory of molasses formation

This theory is based on the mutual solubility influences in the system: water
sugar, salts or non sugar components. In many studies of the influence of the
non sugar components on the solubility of sucrose, pure substances or mixtures
of pure substances have been employed, but they did not always correspond to
the complicated relationships prevailing in molasses. The use of ion exchangers
made it possible to start these investigations directly on molasses. It has been
found that nitrogenous materials have practically no effect with respect to the
sucrose solubility; potassium and sodium have considerably stronger molasses-
producing properties than calcium and lithium. Because of the economic
significance of the composition of final molasses there is great permanent
interest in the sugar industry in being able to calculate beforehand the amount of
molasses that may be expected, i.e. at the time of delivery and processing of
the beets.
Molasses is a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane, grapes or
sugar beets into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word
melaço, which ultimately comes from mel, the Latin word for "honey".[1] The
quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or sugar beet, the
amount of sugar extracted, and the method of extraction. Sweet sorghum syrup
is known in some parts of the United States as molasses, though it is not true
molasses.
 CHALLENGES FOR SUGAR INDUSTRY

India ranks first in sugar consumption and second in sugar production in world
but it's share in global sugar trade is below 3%. Indian sugar industry has been
facing raw material, and resource as well as infrastructural problems.
Globalization has brought a number of opportunities but at the same time posed
certain challenges before sugar industry. Most of sugar units in India utilize
production capacity below 50%. Low capacity utilization and inadequacy of raw
material led to closer of 100 sugar factories in India. Mounting losses and
decreasing networth of sugar factories have been responsible for sickness of
sugar industry. Sickness in sugar industry has reached to an alarming proportion.
Indian sugar industry has been cash striven for decades. Low cash inflow due to
piling stocks leads to serious financial crisis and finally to closing sugar factories.

Sugar prices have been a political issue rather than economical issue. Many a
times it worsens economy of sugar factories. The main concern of sugar industry
in India is fluctuations in sugarcane production due to inadquate irrigation
facilities, lower sugarcane yield, and frequent droughts in tropical and sub-
tropical areas where sugarcane is grown ona large scale. In addition, sugarcane
yield has been lower (59 Mts per hectare). Sugar recovery is also lower in
comparison with other sugar manufacturing countries. This leads to escalation of
production costs and weakness competitive edge of the industry. Most of sugar
mills in India are having daily sugarcane crushing capacity of 1250 tonnes. These
mills cannot have economies of scale so they have to incur high production
costs. Indian sugar industry is characterized by high production costs. Therefore,
daily crushing capacity should be extended to 2500 tonnes. Obviously, industry
has a great challenge of existence in global market. In recent years, sugarcane
production in India has decelerated to a great extent due to water and power
shortage. Special attention is needed to be given on water resource
management. All the area under sugar cultivation should be brought under drip
irrigation to conserve water as well as fertilizers. Adequate and regular power
supply to sugarcane growers and sugar factories would increase production
andproductivity. To enhance share of Indian sugar industry in global trade, quality
and quantity of sugar needs to be enhanced.
 CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS

Sugar industry is the second largest agro-based industry in India. Sugar factories,
particularly cooperative sugar factories in Maharastra and other states have been
instrumental in building confidence among rural people and strengthening industrial
base in rural India. In the era of globalization, sugra industry needs more competitive
edge which can be given by way of modernization, enhancing productivity, and
manufacturing excellent quality sugar at competitive prices. It needs quality
management at every level of activity to enhance its performance. The need of the
hour is to liberalize industry from clutches of unprofessional people. Most of the sugar
units do not have byproduct utilization plants. Projects based on bagasses and
molasses should be initiated. Ethanol, alochol, and paper projects have tremendous
scope for development in India. In future, 10-15% ethanol may be allowed to be
blended with petrol. Bagasses based power generation projects installed adjacent to
each sugar factory would fulfill need of power. Research programme should be
undertaken in area of sugarcane cultivation, enhancing sugarcane productivity, and
sugar recovery. Sugarcane prices should be fixed on basis of sugar recovery. Attention
is to be given on manufacturing quality sugar as per international standards at
competitive prices.