The papers presented at the Meeting are listed below, linked to an abstract of the paper.
#959 Keynote Speaker :
#960 Factory Trials to Determine How Sugarcane Trash Impacts Downstream Processing Including Affinated Sugar Production
#961 Automatic Crystallisation in the View of the Special Needs in Refineries
#962 Measuring and Improving White Sugar Pan Yields at Redpath Refinery
#963 Reducing Dust Explosion Risks in the Vertical Conveyance of Bulk Materials : the Olds Elevator
#964 Back to the Basics of Sucrose Loss Reduction
#965 Symposia
#966 A Comparative Evaluation of Fixed Bed and Pulsed Bed Carbon Absorbers
#967 High Performance Screens for Continuous Centrifuges
#968 Liquid Sugars Produced in Sugar Refineries: Advantage of Large Central Units Serving the Competitive Needs of the Food Industry
#969 Simplified Refining Process for the 21st Century
#970 Design of Sugar Refineries - Practical Experience Obtained from Completed Projects
#971 Scale Up Sugar Cane Antioxidants Preparation at Taiwan Sugar Corporation
#972 Development of Ion Exchange Decolourisation and Spent Brine Filtration in India
#973 Implementation of a Vacuum Belt Horizontal Filter on Refinery Phosphotation Scum to Minimize Environmental Impact
#974 Commercial Production of Fullerenes from Waste Molasses; a Major Commercial Breakthrough for the Sugar Industry
#975 The SPRI Method for Rapid Analysis of Starch in Raw Cane Sugar
#976 Color and pH Phenomena in Cane Juice Clarification by Defecation, Sulfitation and Carbonation
#977 Modified Double-Carbonation Process for Production of Direct Consumption Cane White Sugar
#978 On-Line Colour Measurement
#979 On-Line Particle Size Analysis
#980 Spray Vertical Continuous Pan (SCP™)
#981 Microwave Measuring Technology for the Sugar Industry
#982 Optimization of Amylase Applications in Raw Sugar Manufacture that Directly Concern Refiners
#959 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Mike Strain, Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry, State of Louisiana
No abstract available at this time.
#960 FACTORY TRIALS TO DETERMINE HOW SUGARCANE TRASH IMPACTS DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING INCLUDING AFFINATED SUGAR PRODUCTION
Barbara Muir, Sugar Milling Research Institute, Durban, South Africa, and Gillian Eggleston, USDA-ARS-SRRC, New Orleans, LA, USA
In many countries including the U.S. and South Africa, certain areas are changing to green from burnt cane harvesting due to public and environmental pressures against burning, and the current trend to investigate sugarcane trash as biomass for the production of bio-products. Since the 1940s there have been factory trials all over the world on green cane processing but none have managed to shed light on the effect on downstream processing beyond clarification. This paper reports on the effects of harvesting green billeted and/or whole-stalk sugarcane compared to burnt billeted and/or whole-stalk sugarcane at two factories situated in the Midlands area of South Africa, which operate either a tandem mill or a diffuser. Sufficient cane of each treatment was harvested and processed at each mill to purge the extraction plant of other cane. Trash tissues, direct analysis of cane (DAC), and bagasse samples in the front end were collected and analyzed. A bulk sample of mixed juice was transported to the SMRI pilot plant to produce clarified juice, syrup, A-massecuites, A-molasses, A-sugar, and affinated sugar. Stalks contribute more to the load of color delivered to the factory than the trash tissues because of their higher mass and volume. The increased trash levels caused an increase in the colors of affinated sugar of 25 IU (relating to 50 IU in VHP sugar) per 1% trash. Increased trash levels resulted in decreased DAC and MJ purities in the factories with serious economic consequences. For every 1% increase in trash there was an approximate 0.41% decrease in MJ purity. An increase in trash, generally, caused a corresponding reduction of the clarification settling rate and higher mud volumes. The effect of trash on processing of the mixed juice in the pilot plant was a reduction in purity all the way through to A-massecuite. Assuming a constant A-massecuite exhaustion, this would result in an increase in crystal content in the massecuite, an increase in the purity drop from A-massecuite to A-molasses and a decrease in the purities of A-molasses due to the presence of higher levels of trash. Viscosities of downstream products, i.e., syrups, massecuites and molasses tended to increase with increased trash levels.
#961 AUTOMATIC CRYSTALLISATION IN THE VIEW OF THE SPECIAL NEEDS IN REFINERIES
Bernd Langhans, Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany
The automatically control crystallisation process is the key to smooth and trouble free operation in sugar refining installations. Aside from the pure logic and saturation control, the interface to the operational concept of the refinery is essential. To be able to boil not only one product, but up to five products directly after each other, with various connected process parameters forces additional needs into the application engineering.
Using the available process data such as tank levels, available steam pressures or availability within the centrifugal section, modern process control strategies will provide the data, which will then enable the operator to take the right decisions ions. In several installations it becomes possible today to fully control the sequence of the pans and products to the point where manual interference is limited to starting the sequence itself.
Demands on instrumentation including super saturation measurement, high quality density control as well as steam flow analyses are shown in the paper.
The outlook, with a full integration of the DCS into production control and planning (ERP) systems, will show that future application will see the pure crystallisation process as just one step in a sequence of several, to optimise the plant in performance, efficiency and production throughput.
#962 MEASURING AND IMPROVING WHITE SUGAR PAN YIELDS AT REDPATH REFINERY
George Carter, American Sugar Refining, Redpath Sugar, Toronto, Canada
The sucrose yield of the White Sugar Pans is an often overlooked measurement. Low yields lead to extra strikes, higher energy consumption and lower refinery throughput. Fortunately measurement of pan yields is straightforward and making improvements to the yields can in some cases be easier than you might think.
This paper highlights the impact of white pan yields on the refinery and how they can be measured. The yields at several refineries will be reviewed and the trends at Redpath in particular discussed. Strategies and techniques for optimizing the white pan yield will be presented including the results of recent work at Redpath to increase the sucrose yield.
#963 REDUCING DUST EXPLOSION RISKS IN THE VERTICAL CONVEYANCE OF BULK MATERIALS; THE OLDS ELEVATOR
Richard McIntosh, Hudson NH, USA, Peter Wypych, Univ. of Wollongong, NSW, Australia, Robert Olds, and William Olds, Olds, Engineering, Australia
In this mature industry, radically new concepts are rare. Existing methods of bulk material elevation, such as dilute-phase pneumatic conveying, screw conveying and bucket elevators can experience a wide range of problems and hazards. A new vertical bulk materials elevator, using a rotating outer casing and stationary screw, has demonstrated the vertical elevation of sand, sugar, flour, beans, nuts, salt, breadcrumbs, steel shot and many other materials. It runs quietly and smoothly and has a consistent metered delivery rate. This patented invention is beginning to be applied worldwide. It has unique advantages in bulk material handling, particularly with respect to minimizing the generation of dust and dramatically reducing the risks of dust explosions. Due to its full-bore mode of flow, delivery efficiency is greatly improved and explosion ignition and propagation hazards are inherently avoided.
This paper describes and reviews this new technology and demonstrates some of its unique features and advantages via industrial case studies.
#964 BACK TO THE BASICS OF SUCROSE LOSS REDUCTION
Michael Burchell, American Sugar Refining Company, Crockett, CA, USA
High temperature, pH extremes, poor refining habits, theft, and reprocessing are just some of the ways the sucrose loss takes place in a cane sugar refinery.
The reduction of sucrose losses have always been a priority for sugar refiners. More recently, raw sugar purities have increased while profit margins have decreased, both leading to the need for increased focus on sucrose losses.
It is now the responsibility of a new generation of sugar refiners to merge together the current technology with the expertise of our predecessors to ensure acceptable sucrose losses. Strategies such as instantaneous sucrose analyzers, technical audits, chemical loss estimation, overfill, process automation to eliminate internal recycle, and new sucrose loss issues associated with sugar dust will all be reviewed.
#965 SYMPOSIUM - A: PREVENTING DUST EXPLOSIONS
#942 SYMPOSIUM - B: VALUE-ADDED PRODUCTS FROM SUGAR REFINING
#966 A COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF FIXED BED AND PULSED BED CARBON ABSORBERS
A. S. Vawda , G. N. Kassim, K. Bahakeem, and M. Al Sheri, Savola Sugar, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Activated Carbon has been the preferred choice for decolourization of clarified liquor at many modern refineries. Fixed bed carbon columns have been in service for many years. Due to advances in technology, a pseudo-counter current moving bed design, referred to as pulsed bed design was adopted for the new refinery at Port Sokna. This technology was compared to the fixed bed adsorbers at the Jeddah refinery.
This paper examines the performance of both systems on the basis of:
#967 HIGH PERFORMANCE SCREENS FOR CONTINUOUS CENTRIFUGES
Paul Wassing, Stork Veco, Eerbeek, The Netherlands, and Marco de Vries, Sulkerunie, Vierverlaten, The Netherlands
Working screens for a continuous centrifuge are a critical item in the crystallization process. For this reason it is remarkable these screens do not get the attention they deserve. Most process engineers are not fully aware of the variety of screens available and therefore do not take advantage of opportunities to optimize their process.
The choice of the correct screen depends on the factory objective. This subject is extensively discussed in this paper. Conventional /standard chrome plated nickel screens are used for normal applications, VecoFlux screens for higher throughput and/or finer sugar crystal retention and VecoLife for a longer life and therefore lower operational cost.
The newest generation of VecoFlux-Special screens were developed in close cooperation with a.o. Suikerunie, who have used these screens for several years now with excellent results. This joint development took 6 years because screens were analyzed after operating a full campaign and improvements were made based on the results of the final molasses purity and the wear of the screens.
This paper describes the differences between the screen types and the steps taken to come to the newest generation of VecoFlux-Special screens.
#968 LIQUID SUGARS PRODUCED IN SUGAR REFINERIES: ADVANTAGE OF LARGE CENTRAL UNITS SERVING THE COMPETITIVE NEEDS OF THE FOOD INDUSTRY
Francois Rousset and Dominique Paillat, Novasep Process, Epone, France
In the present world economics, the prices of sugar have managed to remain very reasonable, thanks to continuous sugar availability from large producers like Brazil and sustained domestic sugar production in other producing countries. In comparison, cereals whose prices have been very volatile in 2008, are considered now as a more questionable raw material for the production of liquid sugars such as high fructose syrups. The production of liquid sugars (Sucrose or medium invert) at the Sugar Refinery is gaining a new recognition for several reasons :
#969 SIMPLIFIED REFINING PROCESS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Chung Chi Chou, Dr. Chou Technologies, Inc. USA, and Ms. Livia Engel, AmCane Sugar, USA
The best way, economically, technically, and environmentally, to produce refined sugar in the 21st century's economy is to attach a simplified refinery to a sugar mill with matching capacity:
a) A sugar mill can be easily improved/modified to produce sugar color of 600-1000 ICU Max. practically with bagasse as the only fuel for the mill. No other source of energy, such as coal, gas, or oil should be needed; b) In the attached/annexed simplified refinery, the 600 to 1000 ICU VHP raw sugar is dissolved to 68 brix and color is reduced, by best available well established processes, to between 150 to 200 ICU for boiling refined sugar, preferably after evaporation to 75 brix; c) The combined color of R1, R2, and R3 sugar will be below 35 ICU.
The above processes include a simplified highly efficient aeration system to minimize phosphatation carry- over and after floc, and decolorizing agents for color reduction. All processing aids used meet US regulatory requirements. No Ion exchange process (therefore no dark brine regenerant waste disposal problems) and No UF- and nano-membrane systems are used in the process. Also No sulfitation (air pollutant and health hazard) and No conventional sugar silo for sugar conditioning are needed. There are about ten (10) sugar mills producing refined sugar, about half of which also use Ion Exchange process.
The authors express thanks to Mrs. Diane Stevenson, research chemist of CSC Sugar, LLC, USA, for contribution to part of experimental data included in this paper.
#970 DESIGN OF SUGAR REFINERIES - PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE OBTAINED FROM COMPLETED PROJECTS
Andreas Lehnberger and Reinhold Hempelmann, BMA AG, Braunschweig, Germany
The world sugar market has seen dramatic changes during the last decade. Sugar production from sugar beet has, for instance, been reduced in Europe so that there is now a larger global market for sugar produced from sugar cane, which is also due to generally increasing sugar consumption. In existing industrialized and newly industrialized countries, there is a growing demand for sugar which compares to category-EC2 beet white sugar and which is now increasingly produced by refining raw cane sugar.
In particular in countries of the northern hemisphere – from the USA to North Africa and the Middle East or China – BMA has been in charge of various new sugar refinery projects, starting with the first concept and including commissioning, or of refinery expansion and optimization programmes. Experience with this wide range of projects has shown that although the underlying problems may be quite similar, results tend to differ because the basic conditions are different.
This paper takes a closer look at major aspects of the main refining process, where the plant capacity together with a large number of different requirements forms the framework for the central elements :
By referring to the experience gained with completed projects, the authors present a number of solutions and explain why certain decisions were favoured.
#971 SCALE UP SUGAR CANE ANTIOXIDANTS PREPARATION AT TAIWAN SUGAR CORPORATION
Herng-Kuang Sheen, Yao-Chi Hsiao, and Yeong-Jong Lu, Taiwan Sugar Corporation, Taiwan, China and Chung-Chi Chou, Dr. Chou Technologies, Inc., USA
Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) has constructed a semi-commercial plant to extract the sugarcane antioxidants from clarified juice at Shanhua Sugar mill during the crop season of 2007/08. The process includes a cooling system, a filtration system, a vacuum concentration device, and a set of three polymeric styrenic adsorbent resin columns, and one cation exchange resin column, each containing 28 liters of resins respectively. Generally two of the adsorbent resin columns operated in series at one BV per hour, and the third adsorbents column is for regeneration to recover antioxidant and as stand-by. We also established an operational manual for operators to run this process on three shift basis. The treated “decolorized” juice was totally returned to raw sugar manufacturing process. When the juice color of the “leading” absorption resin column reached 75% of the feed juice color, normally after 72 BV, the column was taken down for regeneration and recovery of antioxidants and the “trailing”(2nd column) became the leading column. For recovery of antioxidants, the column was regenerated by the 1.5BV (bed volume) of 2% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. The regeneration effluent, which contains both antioxidants and NaOH was collected, and neutralized by circulation through acidic resin column until its pH less than 7. The extracts were further concentrated by vacuum concentration device to 670Bx and saved it in refrigerator. The final product was shown to have no presence of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Mold and Yeast on microbe analysis. The antioxidants also passed a toxicity study. Analyses showed that the extracted antioxidants contain 27.64% (Gallic acid equivalent, GAE) of polyphenolic content on dried basis comparable to that of grape seed extract. Oxygen Radical Absorption capacity (ORAC) and Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity (TEAC) were 6900μmole TE/g dried solid. We beleive that there is a potential market to fortify food products with sugar cane derived antioxidants for the increasely health-concious population.
#972 DEVELOPMENT OF ION EXCHANGE DECOLOURISATION AND SPENT BRINE FILTRATION IN INDIA
A. K. Srivastava, S. P. Tripathi, K. Gopalakrishanan, and Dr. G. S. C. Rao, Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd., Ghaziabad, India
India being the second largest sugar producer traditionally produces plantation white sugar by Double sulphitation process. Production and refining of raw sugar is an activity being taken by the Indian Sugar Industries of late. For the production of refined sugar, decolorisation of sugar melt is one of the most important process step.
Before the year 1996 ion exchange technology was not in use for sugar melt decolourisation in India. When the first plant process was converted to produce mill white sugar, with re-melt clarification process, it was decided to develop the decolurisation process using indigenous resins. The design and process parameters were first established in lab using Glass columns, and then operating and regeneration and other parameters were established during off season. With the encouraging results first full scale plant was installed during season 1996-97
.This paper deals the various aspects of design criteria, resin selection, operating and regeneration parameters, process circuit design and gradual improvement in next installations. In the current installation Nano filtration of spent brine is also installed and commissioned. This paper describes concept of zero effluent decolurisation system with spent brine filtration, describing in detail of the selection of membrane, operating and regeneration parameters, brine recovery etc for spent brine recycle.
#973 IMPLEMENTATION OF A VACUUM BELT HORIZONTAL FILTER ON REFINERY PHOSPHOTATION SCUM TO MINIMIZE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
M. Reza Laulloo and Indrajit Singh, National Sugar Company, Horms, Syria
NSC- Sugar Company is a 3000 Ton per day stand alone sugar refinery located near the city of Homs in Syria Arab Republic. The refinery was established in 2006-07 and started operation during the month of December 2007. As the refinery is situated in a residential area and keeping in view the ever increasing environmental concerns and more stringent laws enforcement by the local authorities, the refinery has been designed to consume all the water on site (including landscaping) and hence qualify to zero effluent discharge sugar refining facility. All the sugar refineries are using different kind of primary clarification process and during the past years the choice has been either carbonation or phosphotation process. Both processes during the clarification phase produce different type of end products Scums / mud while clarifying the main stream. The process of Phosphotation produced 80 – 90% less scum / mud in comparison to carbonation process. However the composition, gelatinous nature and high moisture content of phosphotation scum makes it more difficult to dispose of. The disposal of scum from the process remains a major concern for the management of NSC-Sugar Company. In an endeavor to reduce the volume of scum and so its impact on environment, a Vacuum belt horizontal filter was installed. The Filter is successful in reduction the moisture content of mud by around 15% along with some recovery of residual sugar. The experience and results of the same has been discussed in this paper. Various modifications carried out to stabilize the system is discussed. The paper also include a brief look on the scum de-sweetening process of the refinery and future avenues for improvement of the system.
#974 COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF FULLERENES FROM WASTE MOLASSES; A MAJOR COMMERCIAL BREAKTHROUGH FOR THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
Kaman Singh and Amor Deep, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India, and D. Kumar, Teri Univ., New Delhi, India
The discovery of SUGAR in space had been a major scientific breakthrough for the year 2000 which brought back vivid memories of the sensational discovery of the Buckministerfullerene. On account of their diverse applications, fullerenes will be required in large quantities. Such quantities so far have been produced by heating or arching of graphite. However, graphite is expensive, costing $ 1,000-5,000 per tonne. Other researchers have synthesized gram quantities of fullerenes from coal-derived coke, but the coke costs about $ 500 per tonne. Commercial preparation of fullerenes from relatively cheap and abundant sources, hence, is desirable. Fullerenes were discovered from commercially available material; molasses; a byproduct of sugar industry. Hence, a new term “MOLASSESENES” has been coined by the principal author to acknowledge the potential importance of the molasses in the commercial production of fullerenes with tremendous potentialities across the fields from high tech to nanotech, electronics to catalysts and from defence to medicine. Furthermore, production of fullerene from molasses would be more than 90 times cheaper than produced from graphite. The current price of C60 is very roughly the price of gold, for C70, it is about an order of magnitude larger, and that of higher fullerenes very much higher. With the present cost of molasses about $ 1-2 per tonne, its use as an industrial source of fullerenes would greatly improve the economics of production. Hence, a waste molasses may be a boon for sugar industry. Thus, it could be major breakthrough for the sugar industry in the commercial production of fullerenes from waste molasses.
#975 THE SPRI METHOD FOR RAPID ANALYSIS OF STARCH IN RAW CANE SUGAR
Marianne McKee, Ronnie Triche, Mary An Godshall, and Charley Richard, Sugar Processing Research Institute, New Orleans, LA, USA
Starch that occurs naturally in the cane plant can lead to many problems in the refinery if present in concentrations of approximately 250ppm or higher. These problems include filterability issues arising from insoluble starch granules, higher phosphate levels in clarified liquor using phosphatation refining, and poor filterability after clarification in carbonatation refining. Many methods exist for measuring starch in raw sugars, but no standard method is in use throughout the industry. Recently, Sugar Processing Research Institute (SPRI) has developed a simple, rapid, and quantitative starch test for use with cane juice and raw cane sugar samples. The time required to complete the analysis is 15-20 minutes and multiple samples can be analyzed at once. Very small amounts of regents are required and the equipment needed is already present in most mill laboratories. The rapid method correlates well (>95%) with methods currently used in the industry. Raw sugars with starch concentrations ranging from 80ppm to 600ppm were tested using the SPRI rapid starch test and the SPRI standard starch test. The correlation was 0.98 for the two methods. This paper will discuss the SPRI rapid starch method details, equipment requirements, correlation between current methods and the rapid method as well as results of a collaborative study on this method.
#976 COLOR AND pH PHENOMENA IN CANE JUICE CLARIFICATION BY DEFECATION, SULFITATION AND CARBONATION
Silvia Zossi, Estacion Experimental Agroindustrial, Argentina, Liu Huixia, Guangxi University, China, and Michael Saska, Audubon Sugar Institute, Louisiana, USA
While simple defecation is the standard process for clarifying cane juice when raw sugar is produced, most direct consumption sugar throughout South/Central America, China, India and elsewhere employ sulfitation followed by syrup clarification; in some Chinese factories double carbonation-filtration alone is used for the same purpose. Worldwide spikes in sulfur prices and sugar quality issues prompted efforts to reduce or even eliminate use of sulfur dioxide. To that purpose, a simplified (single) carbonation-decantation process has been tested and compared with standard sulfitation; the objective being a “greener” process that besides eliminating sulfur, would also provide the opportunity to sequester the excess CO² from ethanol production that would otherwise be released in the atmosphere. In the laboratory same-juice-comparison tests, decolorization rate (difference between the color of raw juice and color of juice after clarification and settling for 1 hour at 98° C) was 32, 46 and 43% for defecation (hot liming), sulfitation and carbonation respectively. The color of defecation clarified juice increased during settling at a rate of 400- 1,200 IU/hr at 98° C and 0 – 300 IU/hr at 85 °C. No difference between sulfitation and carbonation clarified juices was observed with respect to the rate of color increase at 98° C; both increased at a rate of about 400 IU/hr. Syrup was produced from both sulfitation and carbonation clarified jices and subjected to laboratory thermal storage tests. No significant color increase was observed over 24 hours at 60 and 70°C for either of the juices, pH during clarification and concentration of defecation and sulfitation jujices drops, presumably because of the prevailing affect of calcium phosphate-to-hydroxyapatite transformation, while the opposite tends to be the case for carbonation juices due to the bicarbonate-to-carbonate conversion. This would seem to favor carbonation because of expected smaller loss from acid inversion of sucrose.
#977 MODIFIED DOUBLE-CARBONATION PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION OF DIRECT CONSUMPTION CANE WHITE SUGAR
Liu Huixia, Guangxi University, China, and Michael Saska, Audubon Sugar Institute, Louisiana, USA
Some sugar cane factories in China still use the traditional double-carbonation/filtration process that originated in Java in 1930’s for production of direct consumption cane sugar. The high production costs provide strong incentives to consider process modification, in order to lower the chemical and energy use and waste disposal costs. To that effect, a modified double-carbonation process has been developed and tested in laboratory conditions. The CaO consumption has been lowered from the present 15 – 18 kg CaO/ton cane to 3 – 4 kg CaO/ton cane. Flocculant-assisted settling of the precipitate after first carbonation was used to replace traditional filtration. Final pressure filtration then removes the small quantity of the second carbonation precipitate. In tests with cane raw juice in the range 10,000 – 17,000 IU color, the overall process produced up to 80% color removal, i.e. clarified juice with color between 2,100 - 3,200 IU. Based on the industrial experience, this is low enough for production of high quality consumption white cane sugar. The divalent ion content (magnesium: 50 – 100 mg/L, calcium: 300 – 400 mg/L), and other attributes of the clarified juice were comparable to the traditional process.
#978 ON-LINE COLOUR MEASUREMENT
Bertrand Gaillac, ITECA Socadei, Cedex 3, France
The Colobserver® meets customer needs on wet and dry sugar colour measurement.
Different blending schemes have been developed in cooperation with the plant to comply with the numerous qualities used by the production. Strategies have been defined to consider sugar levels in the silos.
Today the Colobserver® enables the Busco plant and many other sugar refineries worldwide to ensure a mastered quality to its customers both on wet and dry sugars and brings a tracking on the production which is very appreciated by clients like Pepsi Cola.
#979 ON-LINE PARTICLE SIZE ANALYSIS
Bertrand Gaillac, ITECA Socadei, Cedex 3, France
In many processes particle size analysis is a substantial criterion of quality which demands a continuous follow-up.
Laboratory analyses are realized on small quantities of products, which sometimes lack of representativeness. The sampling frequency and the analysis duration minimize the number of controls. This often results in process defects and off specifications.
The Part Sizer has been designed to automate particle size analysis directly in the process. Measurement principle is made by sieves and thus identical to the measurements realized by the laboratory.
This is the reason why it is easy to get directly in the process the same results than the laboratory at higher frequencies which is not the case with other optics systems requiring an interpretation and a correlation.
The same Part Sizer can check several lines of products whose specifications may vary. Iteca specializes as well in sampling and offers a wide range of equipments upstream the Part Sizer to collect material. The integrated PLC is able to give around 15 user-definable recipes according to each application and each product. The Part Sizer is the best solution to increase quality and decrease production costs.
#980 SPRAY VERTICAL CONTINUOUS PAN (SCP™)
Vivek Verma, Spray Engineering Devices Limited, Haryana, India
Cane Sugar Industry is now focusing on energy efficiency. Crystallization Station consumes major portion of thermal energy. A Continuous pan is needed which operates on low pressure vapours for a variety of massecuite and sugar quality. Spray Vertical Continuous Pan is created with following features Vertical Outdoor Tower, Eight or more symmetrical Calandria for better massecuite quality, Compact bottom mounted Circulator in all chamber, Honeycomb Calandria for improved circulation, Operating heating steam pressure down to 300 mbar, Inbuilt Seed Pan. No separate Batch Pan Required, Cleaning during operation by isolation of individual chambers, Liquor up-to 85% concentration can be handled due to vigorous circulation, Vapor pressure & steam control for Individual chamber, Microwave Brix and Circulator Power measurements, Massecuite level and Temperature measurements, All wetted parts in Stainless Steel, Equipped with efficient condensing system capable of 0.08bar vacuum, Modern Control System included, Most economical crystallization system, Available for all duty application.
#981 MICROWAVE MEASURING TECHNOLOGY FOR THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
Ulrich Klute, Berthold Technologies, Bad Wildbad, Germany
Nowadays the dry substance of sugar syrup and massecuite is measured online using the most advanced microwave measuring technology. The correlations for water content and dry substance allow for accurate control of concentration, Brix content and density in all areas of sugar production. This permits a continuous measurement during the complee crystallization process, both in the solution and the magma phase. This report explains the measuring effect and signal analysis of microwave measurement systems and illustrates the user benefits, resulting in very good process control. Solutions are proposed for typical application problems such as incrustation, abrasion, purity dependencies and the recognition of breaks between crystallization processes using the Micro-Polar Brix measurement system. Results acquired with different sensors n various processes and applications are presented. Besides the accurate and reliable measurement of all products from sugar beet or sugarcane, a high value is placed on simplicity, low maintenance and easy calibration to ensure optimized process control and cost. The automatic calibration feature, which requires no additional PC, is demonstrated.
#982 OPTIMIZATION OF AMYLASE APPLICATIONS IN RAW SUGAR MANUFACTURE THAT DIRECTLY CONCERN REFINERS
Gillian Eggleston, SRRC-USCA-ARS, New Orleans, LA and Belisario Montes, Alma Plantation LLC, Lakeland, LA, USA
In recent years there have been warnings by some U.S. refineries that there may be a penalty for high starch concentrations in raw sugar if starch control is not improved. Most commercial α-amylases used by the U.S. sugar industry to control starch have intermediate temperature stability (up to 85 °C with an optimum ~70 °C), and are produced from Bacillus subtilis. A method incorporating Phadebus™ blue starch tablets was modified to simulate conditions in typical last evaporators, i.e., pH 6.4 and 65.5 °C, where α-amylases are mostly currently applied. A wide range of activity existed for α-amylases (59.0 to 545.3 KNU/ml) that did not reflect their comparative unit costs, i.e., activity per U.S. dollar only differed 4-fold from 40.7 to 161.8 KNU/ml/$. Concern about the use of engineered high temperature stability (up to 115 °C) α-amylases from Bacillus licheniformis and stearothermophilus, developed for much larger markets than the sugar industry, and possible carry-over activity into raw and refined sugars, molasses, and food products are discussed. Customers of U.S. refineries have requested that no amylases are added in the refinery process and U.S. refinery staff have requested raw sugar factories not to add high temperature stable α-amylases at the factory. Optimization of the application of intermediate temperature α-amylases to the next-to-the-last evaporator in factories increases starch break down.