The papers presented at the Meeting are listed below, linked to an abstract of the paper.
#896 Keynote Speaker : Changes in the European Sugar World
#897 New Developments for the Reduction of the Chemical Consumption and the Production of Effluents in Modern Ion Exchange Decolorization Systems for the Sugar Refinery
#898 Antioxidants, an Excellent Phytochemical Functional Food From Sugar Cane
#899 United Sugar Refinery, Standalone Refinery in Saudi Arabia
#900 From Sugar Crystal to Specialty: Up-to-date Sugar Processing After the Drier
#901 Sugar Screening: from Scalping to Fine Classification
#902 Symposium - [NO ABSTRACTS]
#903 Management Information Systems; A Vital Tool for World Class Plant Performance and Plant Assessment
#904 Activated Carbons in Sugar and Soft Drink Manufacture
#905 Improving daily Production Capacity and Refined Sugar Quality using Carbo-UA Adsorbents
#906 Activated Carbons; Adsorption of Sugar Colorants and Chemical Regeneration
#907 The Application of Surface Condensers in the Sugar Industry
#908 Advanced Centrifugal Control
#909 Measuring Sugar Colour to Control Washing in the Centrifugals
#910 A New Range of Batch Centrifugals
#911 Technology and Energy Economics of Sugar Production: Possibilities of Process Development
#913 Microwave Measuring Procedure during the Sugar Extraction &Ndash; Micro-Polar Brix
#914 Effect of Cane Sugar Impurities on the Sucrose Growth Kinetics
#915 Process Control in the Refinery Employing AMS (Advanced Monitoring System)
#916 In-Line concentration Measurement: New Microwave Measurement Technology Applications in Sugar Production
#917 Greater Reliability with Vacuum-Tight Valves in the Sugar Industry
#918 Scale Formation in Evaporators and the Efficacy of some Antiscale Products
#896 CHANGES IN THE EUROPEAN SUGAR WORLD
Christian Spiegeleer, TEREOS, Lille, France
No abstract available at this time.
#897 NEW DEVELOPMENTS FOR THE REDUCTION OF THE CHEMICAL CONSUMPTION AND THE PRODUCTION OF EFFLUENTS IN MODERN ION EXCHANGE DECOLORIZATION SYSTEMS FOR THE SUGAR REFINERY
Xavier Lancrenon and Francois Rousset, Applexion, Novasep, Epone, France
New improvements are now available to reduce even more the sodium chloride consumption and make easier the recycling of the nonofiltration retentate into the Molasses of the Refinery. The Authors also describe methods of recycling the different types of waters passed through the system in various sequences of the regeneration. As a result, the volume of effluents is minimized.
#898 ANTIOXIDANTS: AN EXCELLENT PHYTOCHEMICAL FUNCTIONAL FOOD FROM SUGAR CANE
Michael Saska, Audubon Sugar Institute, LSU, St. Gabriel, La. USA, and Chung Chi Chou, Dr. Chou Technologies Inc., New York, USA
Several independent studies in recent years reported the presence in sugar cane juice and molasses of compounds with significant antioxidant properties. In view of the persistent need for the sugar industry to develop new products that would appeal to the increasingly health-conscious population, a process was conceived and tested for recovery of the antioxidants from sugar cane syrup or clarified juice. The capacity of three commercial adsorbents to selectively retain the antioxidants was determined in an automated ion-exchange resin testing apparatus. The antioxidant product was then recovered in a concentrated form from the alkali regenerant neutralized by passing through a bed of a strong-acid cation exchange resin. The effectiveness of sugar cane antioxidant product against peroxide radical - measured with the Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity Assay (ORAC) - compares well with other commercial antioxidant supplements.
#899 UNITED SUGAR REFINERY, STANDALONE REFINERY IN SAUDI ARABIA
M. A. Badawood, United Sugar Co., Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
United Sugar Company (USC) was established as one of the Al-Yamamah Economic offset Program Companies. It is managed by the Savola Group together with partners, Tate & Lyle and local Saudi traders. It is a standalone cane sugar refinery producing EEC No. 2 product. The refinery was commissioned in 1997 with an initial capacity of 500 KMT. Currently its proven capacity is just over 1 million MT and is expanding up to 1.5 m MT in the near future. USC covers more than 96% of the local market and also some export markets. Operating in a water deficit region away from a berth has had a major effect in its design, requiring the installation of a long raw sugar conveyor, desalination plant and surface condensers.
The refinery dispensed with Affination and operates conventional Carbonatation and Granular Activated Carbon processes.
#900 FROM SUGAR CRYSTAL TO SPECIALTY: UP-TO-DATE SUGAR PROCESSING AFTER THE DRIER
Peter-Dirk Bergerhoff, IKB Industrieplanung GmbH, Pracht, Germany
The sugar market raises new challenges for the sugar producers, with increasing velocity. The food industry demands always more specific accurately sieved sugar fractions, which cannot be produced by the classic sieving plants. On the other hand, competition on the market for sugar consumer products requires an efficient production to achieve acceptable margins. Contemporaneously, the standards for product quality and hygiene are increasing.
For a successful participation in the market, new specialities are necessary with high margins, to increase the companies' profits.
Often a hygienical production of sugar specialities, at reasonable costs, is not possible in the existing plants. But the hygienic demands of the customers implicate, in the case of hygienical contamination, a high risk for the sugar producer. Losses, caused by sugar waste that has to be dissolved again, present a high potential for optimisation.
Starting from the sugar drier up to the finished product, there is a big variety of points, where up-to-date equipment offers the possibility to fulfil the demands for hygiene, quality and cost reduction in one package of measures. Optimal conditioning of sugar in the silo, a dust reduced, hygiencal conveying and precise sieving may be taken as an example. The logistics in the production is always the base for any measure.
The lecture will point out, also by presentation of some examples of built plants, where and how it is possible, to meet the increasing requirements of the market, in a cost-saving way.
#901 SUGAR SCREENING: FROM SCALPING TO FINE CLASSIFICATION
Olivier Thouvard, Rotex, Wavre, Belgium
Sugar characteristics for screening purpose
MA/CV represent sugar screening's main information and full particle size analysis (PSA) is important especially regarding near size grains.Three different screening applications for sugar
Importance of good sugar screening
Customers require more accuracy in terms of PSA. Sugar size has direct impact on customers' applications and their food processes. It is important to control PSA together with high efficiency and precision.
Different screening technologies
Future Developments
#902 SYMPOSIUM - A: STRATEGIES FOR CONTROL OF CRYSTAL GROWTH IN WHITE SUGAR PANS- No abstracts at this time
#902 SYMPOSIUM - B: CONTROLLING THE QUALITY OF MANUFACTURING AND PACKAGING MATERIALS- No abstracts at this time
#903 MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS; A VITAL TOOL FOR WORLD CLASS PLANT PERFORMANCE AND PLANT ASSESSMENT
Bernd Langhans and Bernd Dietz, Siemens AG Germany, Erlangen, Germany
Operations of modern sugar producing plants in Europe are focused on time- and cost optimized processes in order to meet customer requirements just as well as budgetary concerns in regard of energy efficiency or plant performance.Management Information Systems are the tool at hand to provide the required information on time and in a way which will allow the decision making process easier or at least more reliable.
Balance sheets and historic trending is nothing new to the industry, however the architecture of such a data base is the key to new ways of looking into the plant. Huge amount of data are collected every day and need to be processed stored and then they have to be at hand immediately when they are needed in various different ways.
Several installations of these systems in sugar producing corporations in Europe show these advantages very clearly.
#904 ACTIVATED CARBONS IN SUGAR AND SOFT DRINK MANUFACTURE
L. A. Edye, Sugar Research and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia and G. Kahn, Carbochem, Inc, Philadelphia, USA
This presentation reviews the structure-function relationship of activated carbons used in sugar and soft drink manufacture. The physical properties of carbons that confer differing adsorption performance in these industries are discussed. Quality problems in soft drink manufacture are given as examples. This presentation also reviews the acid beverage floc issue and reports on strategies to solve sugar and water quality related problems in soft drink manufacture.
#905 IMPROVING DAILY PRODUCTION CAPACITY AND REFINED SUGAR QUALITY USING CARBO-UA ADSORBENTS
E. Sarir, and J. Bushong, Carbo-UA, Beverly Hills, CA, USA
Carbo-UA International has developed a new line of extraordinarily powerful adsorbents for removing colourants and other undesirable impurities in sugar processing. This presentation will review the main economic and performance benefits for sugar refineries' use of these new adsorbents, namely, an improvement in daily conversion rate of raw melt to refined sugar, and improvements in final product quality as measured by sugar colour, turbidity, and sediments. The incremental improvements in operating efficiency that comprise the parts leading to the overall capacity and quality benefits will be reported and analyzed. In addition, methods of application of the adsorbents in refinery process streams will be provided.
#906 ACTIVATED CARBONS; ADSORPTION OF SUGAR COLORANTS AND CHEMICAL REGENERATION
Luis San Miguel Bento, Audubon Sugar Institute, LSU AgCenter, St. Gabriel, LA, USA
Granular activated carbons, GAC, have been used for decades, since the 1950's, in the sugar industry to decolorize cane refinery liquors. Due to their fine pore structure, these adsorbents have a very high surface area resulting in a high adsorption capacity for organic compounds, such as sugar colorants. Granular carbons are normally regenerated by burning at 800 to 1,000 oC in special kilns.
In this paper two studies presented using GAC: separation of sugar colorants by differential desorption from GAC and chemical regeneration of GAC used to decolorize sugar syrups or liquors.
In the first study, colorants from different sugar products were fixed to GAC samples and then removed with different chemical solutions at different alkalinities and hydrophobicities. With this process a separation of colorants was achieved. By separating the colorants present in raw sugars, affined sugars and white sugars, it is possible to identify those with more affinity for sugar crystals.
In a second part of this paper a process is presented for chemically regeneration of GAC. The chemical process developed was tested at lab scale and in a pilot plant with two columns with 10 and 30 liters of carbon. Both tests proved that a great majority of colorants fixed to GAC were removed allowing the utilization of GAC without an expensive installation for thermal regeneration. However, for a complete utilization of GAC capacity, periodic thermal regeneration must be made, transporting the spent carbon to appropriate regeneration facilities.
#907 THE APPLICATION OF SURFACE CONDENSERS IN THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A. S. Vawda, United Sugar Company, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Traditionally, the sugar industry has been dominated by the use of once through barometric contact condensers. With the advent of standalone refineries in areas where water is not freely available, the use of surface condensers becomes an economical option. There are basically two types of surface condensers, water and air cooled. Both will be discussed with reference to environmental friendliness, capital and operating cost issues.
#908 ADVANCED CENTRIFUGAL CONTROL
Reinhold Hempelmann, BMA AG, Braunschweig, Germany
The centrifugal station is one of the primary factors deciding on flow rates in, and energy requirements of, the entire factory. The performance of centrifugal machines very essentially depends on the product handled. But with batch machines it is the way in which the different phases of the centrifugal cycle are controlled that has a decisive influence on such aspects as wash water consumption and sugar quality. A centrifugal perfectly adjusted to the product handled is hence an important prerequisite to optimum results. At present, this still requires a considerable amount of manual interference, which is not even made continuously. Modern measurement engineering incorporated into the centrifugal control system offers a number of options for optimisation.
This paper presents recent developments that are to increase the automation level in adjusting the technological centrifugal parameters. It discusses first results demonstrating that wash water consumption can be reduced for the intended sugar quality.
#909 MEASURING SUGAR COLOUR TO CONTROL WASHING IN THE CENTRIFUGALS
Bjarne Chr. Nielsen, Neltec, Bevtoft, Denmark
It is a standard practise to adjust the amount of water used to wash the crystals in order to compensate for the variations in the massecuite delivered to the centrifugals. Often the quality of the massecuite changes suddenly and hours may lapse before the change is detected and corrective actions taken. To prevent bad sugar from reaching the bins or silos it is common practice to apply wash water generously.
This paper explains how to obtain measurements of the sugar quality in real-time and how the results can be used to control the wash water tightly without compromising the sugar quality. Together with a centrifugal manufacturer and a beet sugar factory the control has been implemented.
The application has demonstrated that the wash water may be reduced significantly without any adverse consequences for the sugar quality. The trimming of the wash water reduces the amount of sugar melted in the centrifugals. The amount of good sugar melted unnecessarily may correspond to days of production in a campaign or crop season. The reduced recycling leads to lower losses of sugar to molasses and to energy savings, because less water must be evaporated.
#910 A NEW RANGE OF BATCH CENTRIFUGALS
Gerald Pilot, Fives Cail, Villeneuve, d'Ascq, France
The project of development which is a deep challenge of the current models, is the subject of 3 research axis :
The new models with a capacity of 1250 Kg, 1750 Kg (option (1500 Kg) and 2250 Kg (option 2000 Kg) cover a large range of needs.
#911 TECHNOLOGY AND ENERGY ECONOMICS OF SUGAR PRODUCTION; POSSIBILITIES OF PROCESS DEVELOPMENT
Klaus Austmeyer, HORN GmbH & Co. KG, Bad Zwischenahn, Germany
The energy required to make food is made up of the parts for the production of the raw materials through agriculture, together with the technological processing of the raw materials and the further treatment of the product until it is consumed. The energetic input is equal to the main and by-product energetic values created. An analysis of food production according to the Input-Output balancing is thus possible.
The specific energy input in relation to product in white sugar manufacturing from beet (including pulp drying) ranges between 6 and 12,5 MJ/kg. The minimum achievable at present lies below 4 MJ/kg. An essential precondition to reach this value is the energy link between pulp drying and sugar processing. Moreover, new ways to be found in crystallization, with innovations in continuous evapo-crystallization playing a key role.
The evapo-crystallization tower (VKT) enables the optimum design and construction of calandrias and stirrers for all cells in the cascade. As the individual cells can be by-passed and cleaned separately, high availability of the proposed plant is always ensured. Given the continuous pans with mechanical circulation can be operated with small temperature differentials; this can be utilized for double-effected evaporation within a crystallization stage. Depending on the crystallization system, heating steam requirements are reduced by 35-50%.
The further development of evaporator technology in the sugar industry based not only on the requirement for high k-values, but also requires besides this a compact cost effective design of the operation with a minimum temperature gradient between heating steam and vapour. Based only on evaporator design, achieving a high heat flux density (kW/m2) at low temperature gradient, e.g. 8 stage evaporator systems with an economically interesting heating surface utilization can be realised.
#913 MICROWAVE MEASURING PROCEDURE DURING THE SUGAR EXTRACTION – MICRO-POLAR BRIX
U. J. Klute, Berthold Technologies, Bad Wildbad, Germany
A microwave measuring system for controlling the crystallization process is described. This measuring system, based on the most modern microwave engineering determines on-line the Brix content, respectively the density both in sugar solutions of arbitrary concentrations and in crystal suspensions. Thereby; a continuous measurement is possible during the entire crystallization process. The new measuring system works with different sensors, which are introduced here. Measurements in pipelines (inline), crystallizers and in other process operated plant parts are possible with these sensors.
Typical application problems such as incrustations, abrasion, purity dependencies and pause detection between two crystallization processes are discussed and solution suggestions are shown by means of Micro-Polar Brix. Beside the accurate, reliable, and precise measurement of A, B, and C products of sugar beet and sugar cane, simple operation, calibration, and maintenance-free operation are also of great importance in times of process optimization and cost-efficiency. The possibility of automatic calibration without a PC is being considered for this case.
Being of vital interest, the topic of electromagnetic compatibility of microwave radiation is being studied and clarified on the basis of mobile phones, where the assigned microwaves of a very small power are absolutely harmless for humans and the environment.
#914 EFFECT OF CANE SUGAR IMPURITIES ON THE SUCROSE GROWTH KINETICS
P. Martins and F. Rocha, Dept. de Engenharia Quimica, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; and P. Rein, Audubon Sugar Institute, St. Gabriel, La. USA
The effect of impurities on the crystal growth rate was recently described by means of a new kinetic model called the "competitive adsorption model" (CAM) (Martins, Ph.D. Dissertation, 2006). The crystallizing solute and the impurity are assumed to compete in (1) the coverage of the crystal surface and (2) the occupation of energetically favourable places at surface steps (active sites). The behaviour of a given impurity is characterized by Langmuir adsorption constants, and by the parameter measuring the ability to move across the surface and occupy a stable position at an active site. In this work, the new theory is validated using growth rate data of sucrose measured in a pilot evaporative crystallizer at different impurity concentrations, under industrial conditions. Increasing the non-sucrose concentration decreases the crystallization rate according to the general pattern expected by empirical correlations used in sugar industry. This relationship was successfully characterized from a fundamental point of view, by estimating the average CAM parameters associated with the impurities in cane sugar solutions. The effectiveness of this type of impurity in lowering the growth rates was found to be low ( ), even though an extensive adsorption of nonsucrose compounds was estimated to occur at the crystal surface.
#915 PROCESS CONTROL IN THE REFINERY EMPLOYING AMS (ADVANCED MONITORING SYSTEM)
Gunther Ahring and Boris Morgenroth, IPRO Industrieprojekt, GmbH, Braunschweig, Germany
During the last decade's automation systems, process control systems, process and laboratory information systems as well as management information systems have been introduced to the sugar industry and have been developed to a high standard today. These tools offer the advantage of much improved data availability/accessibility and a tremendous decrease in labour costs as well as improving factory operations. The "missing link" between the current data & information architecture and the implementation of expert systems is a consistent on-line mass and energy balance of sugar factories and refineries.
The aim of the Advanced Monitoring Systems (AMS) developed by IPRO Industrieprojekt GmbH & Sugars International LLC is to provide an "on-line" mass, energy and colour balance of a sugar refinery and to close the information gap in order to implement expert systems."
#916 IN-LINE CONCENTRATION MEASUREMENT: MICROWAVE MEASUREMENT TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS IN SUGAR PRODUCTION
K.-H. Theisen and H. Springer, pro-M-tec Theisen GmbH, Ettlingen, Germany
The microwave concentration measurement is one of the most modern technologies used in industry for process measurement and control. Measurement systems have been successfully employed for Brix control on pans (batch and continuous) in the sugar making process. Recent developments of new applications allow the technology to be applied to virtually all measurement points requiring the process variable determination and control of concentration, density, or total solids in sugar plants.
New applications, especially the concentration measurements in large pipelines and measurements in tanks and mixers have shown that microwave technology thereby offers unique and advantageous concentration measurement solutions throughout the sugar producing process.
This paper discusses measurement experiences with microwave concentration (Brix) measurement on large pipelines, in mixers and vessels. Particular focus is on the concentration measurement of magma and molasses, with discussion of the technical aspects, considerations and advantages of the employment of microwave technology in these new applications.
#917 GREATER RELIABILITY WITH VACUUM-TIGHT VALVES IN THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
Eberhard Hanelt, Crane Flow Technologies, Gaußster, Germany
#918 SCALE FORMATION IN EVAPORATORS AND THE EFFICACY OF SOME ANTISCALE PRODUCTS
A. Bensouisse, B. Rogé, and M. Mathlouthi, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne And Association Andrew Van Hook, Reims, France
Scale in evaporation originates from the concentration of anions and cations left in thin juice after purification especially for sugar factories non practicing decalcification. The major component of scale is Calcium Oxalate (CaOx) which might be found in the form of tiny crystals of monohydrate (COM), dihydrate (COD) or trihydrate (COT) more or less associated with silica.
Our work consisted in determining the composition of thin juice in anions (especially sulphate and oxalate) which may precipitate with Calcium ion as scale. Solubility of CaOx in water and in a solution containing 45% sucrose was also determined. The efficacy (optimum dose) of eight antiscale samples was checked by analysis of the soluble fraction of CaOx at 85°C. Results allow a better understanding of the origin of scale and the effects of temperature , sugar concentration and antiscale dose on the solubility of CaOx. Ionic HPLC was used for anions analysis and atomic absorption at a wavelength of 423 nm for Calcium quantification.
Solubility of CaOx in pure water is very low (6-14 mg/L). This solubility is decreased in presence of increased concentration of sucrose and also when temperature is decreased. These conditions are in favour of CaOx precipitation as scale especially in the 4th or 5th effect of a multi-effect evaporation. Antiscale acts as a displacer of the equilibrium of precipitation of CaOx as scale with varied efficacies depending on the commercial products proposed.