Sugar Industry

Dr. Noaman Ul-Haq

 What is Sugar?

• What we call sugar, the chemist knows as

“sucrose”, in the grouping called carbohydrates.

• The simplest of the sugars is glucose, C6H12O6

• Sucrose, C12H22O11, is a condensation molecule

made up of two glucose molecules.

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 How Sugar is formulated?
• 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 color. The reaction of photosynthesis
can be written as the following chemical equation when
sucrose is being made:
12 CO2 + 11 H2O = C12 H22 O11 + 12 O2
carbon + water = sucrose + oxygen
dioxide
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 Sugar Manufacturing Process
1. Growing & Harvesting the Cane
2. Cane preparation for Milling
3. Milling
4. Clarification
5. Filtration
6. Evaporation
7. Crystallization
8. Centrifugation
9. Drying
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10.Refining
P
• Cane weighting
• The cane is generally weighted on large
platform scale in the transport unit in
which it is received at the mill-railway car,
trailer cart o the like, where direct
weighting is impracticable
• Cane cleaning equipment
• As apart of the cane carrier or auxiliary to
it, is a process of cleaning the cane by
water from associated mud resulting due
to harvesting
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 2. Cane Preparation for Milling
• The milling process may be separated into two
steps, the preparation of the cane by breaking
down the hard structure and purring the cell, and
the actual grinding the cane. The preparation of the
cane is accomplished in several ways
– 1. By revolving cane knifes that cut the cane into chips
but extracted no juice.
– 2. By shredders that tear the cane into shreds but
extract no juice.
– 3. By crushers that break and crush the structure of the
cane, extracting a large proportion of the juice.
– 4. By combination of any or all of the previous ways.
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 3. Milling
• Milling Machinery is composed of three rollers arranged in
triangular form.
• A set of three to seven machines.
• Each mill unit is commonly driven by separate motor
power, steam engine, electric motor, or steam turbine.
• The three rolls are known respectively as the top roll, the
cane roll (entering) or feed roll, the bagasse roll or
discharge roll.
• Adding water or thin juice to the bagasse after each mill
dilutes the content juice and increases the extraction as
this juice is expressed.
 4. Clarification
• The primary object of the clarification is to remove
from the juice the maximum quantity of impurities.

• The degree of clarification has great bearing on the

subsequent stations of the factory, affecting the
pan boiling, the centrifuging, the quality of the
products, and most important of all, the yield of
raw sugar.
• During Clarification following Chemicals are added.

• 1. Soluble phosphates (P2O5):

– clearer juice.
– fewer lime salts in clarified juice.
– more rapid settling.
– faster mud filtration.
– better sugar.
• 2. Polymer flocculants:
– increases settling rate.
– reduces mud volume.
– decreases poly in cake, and
– most important increases the clarity of the clarified
juice.

• 3. Lime (as milk) :

– in order to raise pH to 7
• Result of clarification:

• – The clarification process divides the whole juice

into two portions:

– 1. The clarification that comprises 80 to 90% of the

original juice, almost invariable, goes to the evaporators
without further treatment.
– 2. The precipitated settling, the scrums or mud waters;
which are filtered after various methods of treatment.
 5. Filtration
• In filtration process the rotary -type vacuum filter is
commonly used.
• The filter consists of rotating drum covered with
perforated plate of copper or other metal, which
dips into a bath containing the mud water.
• Hotwater and Bagacillo are added to the mud to
increase filtration efficiency.
• Filtration Result:
– Clarified Juice Sent directly to the evaporators.
– Filter Cake.
 6. Evaporation &
7.Crystallization
• Evaporation of water from the sugar solution is to
yield a final crystalline product.
• The evaporation is done in two stages:
– 1. First in an evaporator station: to concentrate the
solution.
– 2. Second in Evapo- Crystallizer: to crystallize the sugar
from solution.
• Evaporation:
– Removes about 90% of the water from the clarified juice;
– The multiple-effect is usually extended to three, four, and more
effects.
– Evaporation increasing the juice solids from about 15 Brix to
about 65-70 Brix. Which is the Syrup.

• Evapo- Crystallizers:
– The function of evapo-crystallizer is to produce satisfactory sugar
crystals from syrup (seed grain) to serve as the nuclei for the
sugar syrup.
– When Brix reaches 78-80, crystals begin to appear and the nature
of the material changes.
– It’s then called “massecuite”.
 8. Centrifugation
• The basic function of the Centrifugal machines is to
the crystals in the massecuite from the surrounding
molasses or syrup by centrifugal force.

• The Raw sugar is then sent to dryers or refining unit

according to the type of desired final product.

• Molasses is by-product which is used as a raw

material for other products.
 9. Drying

• The wet raw sugar from centrifuges goes to rotary

drier to remove the water from the wet sugar to
reduce moisture content to 0.5-2%; using hot air at
110ºC which flow counter currently with sugar.
 10.Refining
A. Affination
B. Melting
C. Carbonation
D. Filtration
E. Charring
F. Vacuum  Pans
G. Centrifugal  Machines
H. Drying
I. Packaging

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 A. Affination
• Mixed with Raw Syrup from a previous batch
to  soften  the  adhering  molasses,  the 
resulting Magma is  spun  in  Centrifugal 
Machines to wash  off  as  much  molasses  as 
possible.

•The  newly  washed  and  collected  raw  syrup is

artly  used  in  further  magma,  the  remaining
sugar  from  the  rest  being  recovered  by  boiling
in  vacuum  pans.  The  molasses  is  used  in
distilling,  and  as  cattle  feed.
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• Affination is the key to good refining because one gets the
best improvement in quality for the least capital and
running cost. The mixture of syrup and raw sugar crystals
is called the magma, and rightly so because it is an
extremely viscous dark brown liquid mixture not unlike the
magma flowing from some volcanoes.

• Careful control of its temperature and liquid content

are critical:
• too much liquid leads to excessive dissolution of
the relatively pure sugar crystals;
• too little liquid and the coating will not be washed off,
nor will the liquid phase spin off the crystals;
• too low a temperature and the coating will not soften
and wash off, nor will the liquid phase spin off the
crystals;
• too high a temperature and extra colour will form as
sugar degrades;
• Typical operating conditions would be to
have the magma at about 10% water
content at 70 ºC. Once the crystals are
recovered, they are dissolved up to make
a sugar liquor of about 50% solids content
for passing forward to the next stage of
refining.

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 B. Melting
• The sugar from affination and recovery is
stirred and dissolved in hot water to the
correct concentration,whilst strainers and
brushes remove foreign objects.

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 C. Carbonation
• • 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 by cleaning up the flue gas from
the boiler, 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, the processes are carefully
controlled. Prepared by Dr. Noaman Ul-Haq 34
 D. Phosphatation
• Phosphatation is a slightly more complex
process that is achieved by adding phosphoric
acid to the liquor after it has been limed in the
same way as above.In the presence of a small
amount of lime sucrate a calcium phosphate
precipitate is formed which is removed by a
flotation process. The clean liquor is usually
filtered to remove any remaining fine particles
of precipitate. The flotation scum is
desweetened by re-slurrying it and floating it
again. Prepared by Dr. Noaman Ul-Haq 37
 E. Filtration
• which are then filtered off,the resulting
Brown Liquor being sparkling bright and
pale yellowish brown in colour.

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• The filtration is usually 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. As the layer of floc
builds up on the leaf it increases the pressure
drop across the system until the filter is
effectively choked and taken off line for
cleaning. The lime mud that is collected when
cleaning the filters 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 50%
moisture mud.The mud is then dumped or
used as lime on fields.

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 F.Charring (Decolourisation)
• By running the brown liquor through filters
of small granules of Bone Charcoal, it is
decolourised and purified,leaving a water-
white Fine Liquor.

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• 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.

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• 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.
• Decolourization with granular activated
carbon typically achieves 90%
effectiveness: a 1200 color liquor entering
the system will depart at about 120 color.

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 G. Vacuum Pans
• The fine liquor is now drawn into the Vacuum
Pans for  concentration  and  crystalisation. 
It  is Evaporated
under reduced pressure to form Sugar 
Crystals.
•(... which  may  sound  easy,  but  requires  all 
the skills of the highly experienced Pansmen
to achieve  the  correct  crystalisation.)

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 H. Centrifugal Machines
• The solution of mother syrup and crystals is
then  spun  in  Centrifugal  Machines leaving 
the White Sugar Crystals
which are then washed. (... and  the  mother 
syrup  is  further  used  to
produce Golden Syrup and lower grade moist
sugars.)

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 I. Drying
• The wet sugar is Dried in a current of hot air.

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 J. Packaging
• After grading,the Dry Granulated Sugar is
Packeted or  the  domestic  market,  and 
bagged for the commercial market.

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