Importance of in-line colour measurement

of sugar
for product quality and factory performance

By Tim Diringer and Bjarne Christian Nielsen

Copyright Neltec 2012

20 Years ago the first colour measurement has
been installed in the Danish Assens factory
Today more than 100 instruments are
installed all over the world
Definition of process control
 Definition of process control

Process control is the method to keep the

process and the quality of the final product
inside the targets, by controlling and regulating
various process parameters
 Influencing parameters

input Process product

 Online data collection in a sugar factory

Diffuser: Temperature, flow rate

Purification: pH, level, temperature, turbidity, colour

Evaporators: Temperature, pressure, level

Crystallisation: Temperature, pressure , level, density

Centrifugals: ???
Control, alternator, 699, 700
- boiler, 643, 644, 647, 656
- cane throughput, 76, 166
- chemical, 577 – 600
- clarification, 227, 228, 236
- condenser, 330
- conveyor, 74-76
- crystallizer, 417
- diffuser, 160, 165 – 168
- evaporator, 300, 301
- flocculant addition, 349
- juice flow, 199
- mill, 141-144
- pan boiling, 388-398
- rotary drum filter, 248, 257, 258, 260
- sugar dryer, 479
- turbine, 700
Peter Rein, Cane Sugar Engineering page 755
 Spray water
Layer thickness

massecuite centrifugation Sugar

 How centrifugals influence sugar quality


The centrifugals influence the sugar quality
and the mill profit in 3 ways:

Overwashing dissolves good sugar, generates
more molasses and decreases capacity
• Leaving syrup on the crystals reduces pol,
increases ash and leads to caking
• A combination of the two above (very common)
Nowhere in processing
can so much sugar
be lost so quickly
and with so little notice
as in centrifugation
To avoid sugar losses the operator must see
the result of the centrufigation process and
act accordingly
Step by step to
operational
measurements
Lab measurements
Lab measurements

time delay
 Lab measurements
time delay

No information about origin of error

A factory with an output of 1200 t/d raw sugar
produces 50 t raw sugar per hour

50g of sugar are used for the analysis

If a sample for determing the colour in soloution

Is taken every 2 hours

This is 0,000050 % of the total amount of sugar

 On-line measurement

fast results
no information about origin of error
On-line measurement of each batch centrifugal

tells something about origin of errors.

Measurement of a colour profile
for each batch centrifugal

pinpoints the origin of the error

very operational
The instrument

The Neltec ColourQ is

the ideal tool to control
product quality and to
pinpoint
process problems
Installation on a belt conveyor
installation on a screw conveyor
optimizing the
centrifugals
 1st step:

Get an overview of the centrifugal performance

 2nd step:

learn to interprete the colour profiles

Colour of sugar in centrifugals 1 and 4 is 40 % higher
than the colour of sugar in centrifugal 3
Spray nozzles of centrifugal number 1 hve been replaced
Backing screen of centrifugal 4 has been
washed
 Improvements at Manildra-Harwood Mill

• Amount of sugar within the specs increased

 Improvements at Manildra-Harwood Mill

• Molasses purity was reduced from 44 to 41

 Improvements at Manildra-Harwood Mill

• The amount of massecuite required to produce

100 tons of sugar was reduced from 200 tons to
195 tons
To rely on the data collected inline, the following
aspects must be fullfiled:

Accuracy of the instrument

Reliability of the calibration

Lab control in a refinery
 Conclusions

To ensure product quality, in line measurement

is necessary

In line colour measurement helps the operators

to understand the process

Time span from occuring to solving

of a problem is reduced dramatically

Capacity increases and sugar losses decrease

"To measure is to know"
(Lord Kelvin, 1883) 
Thank you
for your attention!
Questions?