LATESTTRENDINENERGYCONSERVATIONAND SUGARMANUFACTURING

Submittedby

G.V. Raman S. Ramesh A. Muralee

SEPTEMBER2011

AVANT-GARDE ENGINEERS AND CONSULTANTS (P) LTD

(AN ISO 9001:2008 ORGANISATION)
No. 68A, Porur Kundrathur High Road, Porur Chennai - 600 116, India Tel: + 91 -44 -2482 8717/ 18/ 19/ 20 Fax: + 91 -44 -24828531 avantgarde@vsnl.com www.avantgarde-india.com

CONTENTS

Synopsis Introduction Sugar Plant Electrical Energy Conservation Sugar plant Thermal Energy conservation Adoption of new Sugar plant machinery and process Water conservation in Sugar Plants Sugar Cane Water circuit Conclusion

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Synopsis Energy conservation will contribute to the better management of steam, power, fuel and water management in the Sugar Industry. Sugar Industries use steam at low pressure for sugar processing. Some of the Sugar plants still use medium pressure steam for sugar processing. Process steam utilization is exceeding 50% on Cane for sugar manufacture in some of the sugar plants in India and there are possibilities of reducing the process steam consumption to a level less than 35% steam on cane. The power utilized for the process exceeds 32kW per ton of cane crushed in some of the sugar plants in India whereas it is possible to reduce the power consumption to about 24kW per ton of cane crushed. Most of the sugar plants in India are operating high pressure co-generation power plants to increase their profitability and viability, which makes it necessary for these plants to optimize/reduce the process steam and power consumption. Energy needs are increasing day by day in India and this ever increasing demand can be meted out by means of energy saving as much as possible. Energy Saved is energy generated. This paper presents the measures adopted in the Indian Sugar Industries for reducing Auxiliary power consumption by effectively using variable frequency drives for different applications. This paper also brings out the steam consumption reduction possibility in the process area of the sugar industries. The steam and power reduction measures that could be adopted in the sugar plants are factory specific and it is necessary to have a detailed study of the sugar factory and come up with the possible steam and power reduction areas for adoption. This paper also presents the possibilities of water conservation in the sugar industry. 1.0 Introduction: Today the Sugar Industry is viewed as Energy Industry as all the products and bye products are potential sources of energy. Sugar cane is a rich source of energy and the energy ratio for input to output is very high for sugarcane than for any other agricultural crop. Sugarcane, being a renewable crop gives a lot of renewable energy resulting in reduction of green house effect. Energy conservation in the sugar industry will contribute to steam, power, fuel and water management. Presently, lot of heat and energy are used during processing in heating and cooling, evaporating and concentrating the juices and intermediate sugar products. Some factories use medium pressure steam for sulphur burning, pan washing, sugar drying, melting and molasses heating and centrifugal station. Many sugar factories use a large quantity of power per ton of cane for sugar processing. The economic viability of a sugar factory increases with the installation of high pressure co-generation plant and export of surplus electric power to the grid thereby bringing an additional source of revenue to the sugar plant. There is a need for the sugar factories to reduce their steam and power consumption in order that the revenues by export of surplus power is increased, thereby the sugar factory will be competitive in the market for the sugar production. It is a well known fact that sugar cane contains about 70% of water and still many sugar factories draw huge quantity of fresh water for processing. Such sugar factories are saddled with large quantity of effluent. It is possible to effectively utilize the water in a sugar factory. The following paragraphs highlight the latest changes in machinery and equipment in the sugar industry that has led to saving of power and steam required in sugar manufacture.

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2.0

Sugar Plant Electrical Energy Conservation In Sugar Mills, Reduction in Specific Power consumption increases Power Revenue. Electrical energy consumption can be reduced by installing Energy Efficient Equipment, correct sizing of the equipment or reducing loss in the energy transmission. Some of the Energy Efficient Equipment suitable for Energy Efficiency in Sugar Mills are discussed here.

2.1

Cane Diffuser In general juice extraction in a sugar factory is carried out either utilizing Diffusion technology or milling technology. The milling technology is more prevalent in India compared to the Diffusion technology even though, of late, there are some plants adopting diffuser system. The major electrical energy consumption section in sugar mill is Juice Extraction Plant. In the standard 2500 TCD milling plant, the power consumption is 1705 kWH whereas in 2500 TCD Diffuser plant power consumption in 1200 kWH. The reduction in power consumption is 505 kWH. Diffusion technology is commonly used in Australia and African countries. The diffusion technology is energy efficient comparing to the milling technology. But in India, the technology did not gain greater acceptance during its introduction period itself. This is because; diffusion technology depends upon better cane preparation and the plant automation. In diffusion system cane preparative index should be 90+ for juice leaching in the diffuser. At the time of introduction of diffuser in India (during 1980s), the cane preparation equipments could only give a lower preparatory index and since automation was not well developed, most of the plants adopted only milling system. However presently two factories have adopted Diffuser system for energy conservation purposes. There will be power consumption reduction in the diffuser plant compared to conventional milling plants. Typically, for a 2500 TCD sugar plant it has been observed that the diffuser system power is about 505kWH lower than a corresponding milling plant system. It should also be noted that the RME will be higher in the diffuser plant compared to the milling plant.

Advantages of Cane Diffuser Increase in extraction Reduction of re-shelling of rollers Sanitation improvement (higher temperature maintained in diffuser reduces sugar loss due to bio chemical inversion) Increase in available bagasse on cane since vacuum filters are not used for filter mud separation Reduction of oil and grease in effluent Reduction of electrical power consumption. Avoidance of a building for the juice extraction system
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View of Diffuser Plant r 2.3 Variable F Frequency D Drive In the conv ventional Su ugar Mills, various eq quipments a operated in variable speed. are d Generally i Indian su in ugar factories, speed variation is b eddy cur v by rrent drives whose s, efficiency i around 60% at 80% operating speed. Mo of the pu is % ost umps are ru under un reduced ca apacity by throttling t valves. Here Ene the ergy efficie ent, variabl speed le equipment can be installed and th reduces electrical e his energy consu umption by at least y 30%. VFD can be inst D talled in the following equipment to conserve electrical energy. e e e 2.4 Cane C Carrier, Feeder table, Raw Ju uice/Diffuser Juice Pum mping, Sulfur b burner Air-C Compressor rs, Muddy Juice and F Filtrate Pum mps uice Clear Ju Pumps, ID,FD a SA Fan of the boi and ns iler Feed water and Fee water tra ed ansfer pump ps, A Centr rifugal drives, Sulfur m pumpin to the Su melt ng ulfur burner rs, Hot and cold air bl d lowers, Dust ca atcher blowe ers, Vacuum Filter drum drive, m m Injectio water pum etc. on mps

Energy Eff ficient Gea ars The transm mission effic ciency of the enclosed worm and w e w worm-wheel gear is abo 60% out and that of spur worm and wormm -wheel drive is about 5 50%. Repla acing the inefficient reduction system with energy effi icient enclo osed helical gear or plan netary gear reduces the energy transmissio loss. Inst on talled powe and power consumpt er tion can be reduced. r Some of the places in w e which energ efficient gears, can b installed are given below: gy be d b

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Feeder table, Cane Carrier, Mill Milk of lime stirrers, Crystallizers drives, Molasses and magma pumps, Pug-mills and Magma Mixers, etc.

2.5

Cane Unloading Harvested cane from the field is being fed to the cane carrier by EOT cranes and feeder tables. Grab type un-loaders, which were used for feeding the cane to the feeder table/carrier from the vehicles, lead to frequent kick loads. Nowadays hydraulic grabs and sling system are being used in the sugar factories for unloading the cane on to the feeder table/ carrier. Hydraulic tipplers have been introduced in the northern part of India for cane unloading on to the carrier which is giving trouble free operation. The hydraulic tippler reduces the power requirement of the cane unloading area. At present, the rotating table type hydraulic tipper is being used in sugar factories which help unloading to be faster compared to conventional hydraulic tipper, where the positioning of the vehicle and unloading takes time.

ROTATING TABLE HYDRAULIC TIPPLER HYDRAULIC TIPPLER 2.6 Feeder Tables Feeder tables are used to store the cane and feed it on to the cane carrier continuously and uniformly. These feeder tables were driven by constant speed induction motor coupled with Eddy current coupling and conventional gear boxes with open gearing, to vary the feeding surface speed, till recently. Nowadays Variable Frequency Drives in combination with shaft mounted planetary gear system is used for energy conservation. This system reduces the power consumption. Typically for a 6000 TCD plant using 7m x 8m feeder table, the installed power reduces from 22kW to 15kW for the feeder table drive.

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Feeder Table Drive Arrangement

2.7

Cane Carrier Cane carriers in most of the sugar factories in India are driven by squirrel cage induction motors with eddy current coupling for speed variation, with conventional gearbox and open gears for speed reduction. Nowadays conventional motor with eddy current coupling is replaced by ACVF drives with planetary gears for speed reduction. By this arrangement one third electrical power gets saved.

ACVFD Motor with Planetary Gearbox for Cane Carrier Drive

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2.8

Cane preparation Many sugar plants in India are using kicker, leveler/chopper, cutter and Fibrizer/shredder for cane preparation prior to milling. The average power consumption with this system works out to about 65 kW to 70 kW per ton of fibre. Presently, we have tried the installation of a single cane preparatory system in the form of inline Shredder which consumes less power compared to the other system. The inline shredder which is located right on the cane carrier has a carding drum and a feed drum located prior to the Shredder as a single unit. This system does not require knives for the cane preparation. The carding drum and the feed drum level the cane and feed it to the shredder and this system consumes only about 55kW to 60kW per ton of fibre thereby there is power saving in the preparatory system. This system also gives long fibres without fine preparation.

Inline Shredder with Carding Drum & Feed Drum 2.9 Milling Tandem with Two roller mills: Various type of mills are used in the sugar plants in India as per the various designs adopted by the manufacturers, like vertical head stack, inclined head stack, auto setting, self setting mills etc. Normally conventional mills are having three rollers with feed, top and discharge rollers along with an under feed roller. The conventional mills are having trash plate to convey the bagasse from first compression to second compression in the mills. Usually the static trash plate consumes about 15% to 20% of the mill drive power. During the traveling of bagasse a lot of extracted juice in the compressions zone will be reabsorbed by bagasse due to improper drainage in the mills.

Top

Feed Juice drainage

Discharge

Trash Plate
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Presently, in India, the two roller mill system is becoming more acceptable in the sugar factories. These mills are not like our olden days crusher the typical arrangement of two roller mill is as shown below.
TOP Feed

Bottom

Juice drainage

Re-absorption Limiting Device

In earlier days mills were driven by steam engines (14% thermal efficiency), later by steam turbine drives (35% thermal efficiency) drives, which are very low efficiency drives. Nowadays these drives are gradually getting replaced by energy efficient (90% and above) DC Drives/ACVFD Motors along with planetary gear boxes. ACVFD motors are most suitable for mill drives because of their own advantages. For steam turbines power transmission system for mills, three stage gearing systems were used i.e., high speed reduction gearbox, slow speed reduction gearbox and bigger size open gearing arrangements. Total gearing efficiency in this system was around 80.0% only. After introduction of electrical drives the first stage high speed gearbox is completely eliminated and two stage speed reduction efficiency of 82.0% was achieved. At present planetary gearbox eliminates slow speed gearbox and open gearing arrangement and its efficiency is around 95%.

ACVFD Motor with Planetary Gearbox for 36 x 78 Two Roller Mill For a 3500 TCD plant, the milling tandem having four numbers of two roller mills with the installed power of 430 kW ACVFD motor with foot mounted planetary (four

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stage) gearbox is sufficient, whereas the same capacity sugar plant having three roller mills of 36 x 78 size with conventional gearing system will require 600kW motor. In the two roller mill trash plate is eliminated and there will not be any hydraulic load on mill roller journals. Hence the power consumption in the milling will get reduced thereby saving energy in mill plant.

View of Two Roller Milling Tandem The figure below shows the two roller milling tandem with driving arrangement of ACVFD motor, foot mounted planetary gearbox with flexible rope coupling operating in a 3500 TCD sugar plant.

2.10

Inter Rake Carrier: The inter rake carrier in the milling tandem are driven by constant speed motor, speed variation is effected through eddy current coupling and power transmission is by single stage worm gearbox and open gearing. In India, this system is getting replaced by ACVFD motor and planetary gearbox for power saving.

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Foot Mounted Planetary Gearbox With ACVFD Motor for Inter Rake Carrier 2.11 Crystallizers:

Shaft Mounted Planetary Gearbox with ACVFD Motor for Short Distance Inter Rake Carrier

Massecuite dropped from the pans are stored and cooled in the crystallizer. Open type horizontal air cooled crystallizers were used for high grade massecuite and open type horizontal water cooled crystallizers were used for low grade massecuite in the past. At present for the lower grade massecuite single mono vertical crystallizer is being used which will save lot of energy and maintenance cost. Very low efficient worm and worm wheel type gears for crystallizer drive are gradually getting replaced with high efficiency planetary gearbox, which saves nearly 50% of power consumed in this area. Also in the centrifugal area pug mill and magma mixer drives are getting replaced with planetary gears. By this replacement 50% electrical power will be saved in this area.

Shaft Mounted Planetary Gearboxes in Magma Mixer and Crystallizers

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2.12 Centrifugals: For A Massecuite curing batch centrifugals are used which are being driven by regenerative type ACVFD motors for power saving to reduce the power consumption form 3.0 kW per cycle (conventional three speed motor) to 1.08 kW per cycle.

ACVFD Motor Mounted on the Batch Centrifugal Machines

2.13

Juice and Water Flow Meters: In sugar mills, by replacing the weighing scale for juice and imbibition water with online meters, power spent on pumping can be conserved. In the juice clarification area juice flow measurement is carried out through mass flow meter replacing the conventional mechanical tipper weighing scale. This totally eliminates the mechanical weighing system and weighed raw juice pumps are dispensed with thereby, saving energy in the sugar plant operation.

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Mass Flow Meter for juice measurement 2.14 Condensers & Cooling System Specific Power consumption in the injection Pumps is about 1.89 kW per ton cane. By installing energy efficient condensers, Specific Power consumption in injection Pump station can be reduced to 1.20 kW per ton cane. By installing Energy Efficient cooling system power consumption can be reduced by 33%. 2.15 Condensers: To create vacuum in evaporation and crystallization system, Barometric condensers were used earlier in sugar factories in India. Later these were replaced by Double Entry Multi Jet Condensers. Nowadays the double entry multi jet condensers are getting replaced with single entry multi jet condensers. Single entry multi jet condensers are highly efficient and hence the water requirement for the condensing system is reduced by one third and also the operation can be easily automated to reduce energy consumption. Latest development in the condensing system is a single common centralized condenser for entire process. Such system is already in operation in some new installations, which are quite successful for steam and energy saving.

Centralized Condenser in a 3500 TCD sugar plant

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2.16

Energy efficient Pumps and Motors In Sugar Mills, there are about 150 centrifugal pumps and 250 motors. By installing energy efficient motors and pumps, installed power consumption can be reduced.

2.17 Energy Conservation by Proper Sizing In sugar mills, it is a usual practice to provide higher capacity margin to cope up with the fluctuation in the crushing rate and higher rating motor to avoid tripping. By proper sizing of the equipment and installing less number of higher capacity machines instead of more number of small capacity machines, installed HP and power consumption can be reduced. 3.0 3.1 Sugar plant Thermal Energy conservation Processing Steam % Cane The sugar industry has many processes and systems that use steam (live, medium pressure and exhaust). Some of the systems that have been using the live steam have been replaced with exhaust steam and the average process steam consumption is getting reduced from 50% steam on cane to about 35% steam on cane in the modern sugar factories in India. Power-Steam ratio can be increased if the quality of steam going to condensing mode is increased by decreasing the Processing Steam. If processing steam % cane is reduced by adopting the thermal energy conserving measures to 35% steam on cane from 50%, specific power generation and power export to the grid can be increased. Sugar plants which have installed high pressure co-generation system will gain very much by the reduction of process steam by way of additional revenue earning due to increased power export. 3.2 Bleeding System Maximum Steam economy can be achieved by optimizing vapour bleeding to Juice heaters and Pans. Vapour required for each Juice Heater is almost fixed in conventional sugar mills. Differential Juice Heating System-heating in stages, improves steam economy. In the diffuser plant, Diffuser juice heating can be done in two stages to improve the later body bleeding. This reduces vapour going to the condenser which reduces the Evaporator injection water power consumption also. 3.3 Juice Heaters: Juice heating by the tubular heater is gradually being replaced by Direct Contact Heaters and Wide Gap Plate Type Heat Exchangers. Because of this juice can be heated by later effect evaporators vapour to reduce the steam consumption in the process. The approach temperature for the new generation heaters is very low (10C). De-scaling of juice heaters is completely eliminated in the Direct Contact Heaters. In the plate type heat exchanger automated cleaning systems are introduced and descaling down time is reduced considerably.

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Direct Contact Juice Heater Sulphited Juice & Clear Juice Heating 3.4 Number of Effect in Multiple Effect Evaporators

DCH Installed for

In earlier days in India, single vapor cell with quad and Double Effect Vapor Cell with quad were used in the boiling house which are getting replaced by quintuple effect evaporation with a common single condenser. Because the boiling house gets the steam supply from TG extraction, the steam pressure available for the first effect will be steadily maintained around 1.5 Kg/cm2 and 1300C. This eliminates the thermal shocks in the evaporation system. The first effect Roberts bodies are being slowly replaced by Semi Kestner and Falling Film Evaporators which are providing lower T in the evaporation. Even fourth body vapours can be utilized for pan boiling.

Quintuple Effect Falling Film Evaporator Set

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The above figure shows the FFE evaporator set installed in the 3500 TCD sugar plant in Tamil Nadu, India where fourth body vapor is used for entire pan boiling. The steam% cane of this factory is 31%. Automatic juice flow stabilization control in clarification and auto control in evaporator operation ensures consistency of operation and efficiency of the systems 3.5 Pan Boiling: Vacuum pans are important equipment used in the manufacture of sugar. The concentrated syrup from the evaporator at around 60-65 Brix is further concentrated in these pans. This is a critical process for the production of good quality sugar and involves the removal of water and deposition of sugar molecules on the nuclei. Massecuite boiling is conventionally carried out by batch process in the Indian sugar industry. These pans are characterized by: High hydrostatic head requirement High massecuite boiler temperature which cause color formation Loss of fluidity of massecuite, particularly towards the end of the batch cycle. Higher boiling point elevation resulting in lower heat flux for a given steam condition. Very high steam consumption due to the non-uniform times of the loading, unloading and pan washing cycles.

The need to overcome these shortcomings led to the development of continuous vacuum pans (CVP), which have now been installed in many sugar plants. The technological development of these pans dates back to the 1970s, beginning with modifications in batch pans and adapting them to continuous operations. The design of these continuous systems aims to obtain maximum overall efficiency with complete automation. Experience with continuous pans has shown improved performances compared to batch pans with greater heat and mass transfer rates along with the possibility of using low-pressure vapors. CVP technology for continuous massecuite boiling in the sugar process offer several advantages, the most important being: Very low hydrostatic loads. Improved grain-size quality. Wide circulation passages Heat balance optimization

In the crystallization process, nowadays, continuous vacuum pans, both horizontal and vertical type are being utilized. These pans can be operated with low temperature vapor. Hence later effect evaporators vapour (third and even fourth effect) will be sufficient for the pan boiling. In the batch pans mechanical circulators (either bottom mounted or top mounted) increases the circulation of massecuite and hence vapour consumption reduces. By the above total steam consumption for sugar boiling is
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reduced, by about 2%. Total automation of pan boiling controls results in consistency, uniformity & efficiency.

Vertical Continuous Pan 3.6 Pan Boiling Scheme Pans evaporation rate varies between 17kg per Sq.Mt to 85 kg per Sq.Mt. A Footing Pan, 32 kg per Sq.Mt and 72 kg per Sq.Mt in A Massecuite Boiling Pan, 10.7 kg per Sq.Mt to 45 kg per Sq.Mt in B Massecuite Boiling and 1.6 kg per Sq.Mt to 36 kg per Sq.Mt in C Boiling. Care is to be taken to minimize the fluctuation in Pan Vapour demand to achieve maximum steam economy. 3.7 Reducing Vapour and Exhaust Steam Venting During Massecuite dropping, it is a usual practice to let off the heating vapour and this causes loss of thermal energy. In order to minimize this loss, the other pans heating vapour valves are opened a little more. But in the Diffuser Plant, that vapour can be let into the diffuser to heat the circulating juice by which diffuser juice heating vapour can be reduced and steam % cane be reduced indirectly.
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3.8

Recirculation of molasses and sugar In order to manufacture the best quality sugar and reduce sugar loss in Final Molasses Multi Crystallization is being followed. Sugar recirculation index varies between 3.5 to 3.9, Solid recirculation index varies between 3.2 to 3.6 and Non Sugar Recirculation index varies between 4.0 to 6.0 Recirculation of Sugar and molasses are to be optimized to reduce Steam % Cane.

3.9

Pan Washing Steam In a 2500 TCD plant, about two tonnes of steam per day is consumed in Pan washing. Two decades back 7 ata steam were being used for Pan Washing. At present Exhaust steam is used for pan washing. Co-generation sugar mills can use Quint-I Vapour instead of Exhaust Steam for Pan Washings to reduce Steam % Cane.

3.10

Molasses Conditioner Steam At present 3 ata steam is being used for Molasses conditioning. Approximate consumption of steam is around one ton per hour. The purpose of molasses conditioning is to dissolve the small grains by diluting and raising the temperature. Quint-I vapour can be used instead of 3 ata steam after suitably modifying the molasses conditioners to conserve thermal energy and thereby Specific Power Generation can be enhanced.

3.11

Continuous Melter About one ton 3 ata steam and 3 tons hot water are being used per hour in the continuous melter in a 2500 TCD plant. Quint-I Vapour can be used in the melter after suitably modifying the Continuous Melter to reduce water to be evaporated and 3 ata steam consumption.

3.12

Stoppages & Cleaning Days Frequent mill stoppages increases steam % cane. During the stoppage the temperature of juices, storage tank syrup and molasses, Massecuite in the Pans, heat exchangers, other vessels etc., comes down. During the restarting extra heat energy is required to heat the cooled mass. This increases the Average Steam % Cane. So stoppages should be as minimum as possible to conserve thermal energy. In the milling Plant, wear and tear due to erosion and corrosion is more because of high pressure squeezing and low juice pH. The percentage crushing stoppage due to mills is about 2%. Generally immediate after cleaning, steam % on Cane is less and bagasse saving is more. As cleaning days approaches, steam, % on cane increases and bagasse saving gets reduced. In order to achieve consistent steam % cane two sets of evaporator or spare III, IV and V body can be installed. Moreover as the cleaning days approaches, exhaust steam pressure increases which decreases the specific power generation also. Similarly Periodical cleaning of the Juice heaters at the regular interval reduces steam % Cane.
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3.13

Thermal Insulation All the heat exchangers, pipes, vessels, receiving tanks, storage tanks etc., are to be lagged with appropriate thickness lagging material. There will be loss of heat by radiation and convection if the piping system tanks and vessels are not insulated properly, thereby increasing the steam percent Cane. If the lagging gets wetted, the insulation capacity of the lagging material gets reduced. So the chance of thermal insulation getting wetted should be as minimum as possible.

3.14

Flash Vapor Circulation and U Column Vapour condensate circulation system and the utilization of flash vapour conserve electrical and thermal energy. Providing U column for condensate withdrawal and transfer of juice from one body to other body arrests the escape of the Vapour.

3.15

Steam and Vapour leakage Leakage in the steam and vapour pope lines and flange joints leakage increases the Steam % on Cane. By-passing the Steam traps and excess venting of Ammonia gases increase the loss of Steam and vapour.

3.16

Thermal Energy Conservation and Mill Steaming In the milling system, circulating juice is at around 30 degree C which is vary conducive for the growth of the micro-organism. Inter carriers, Mill Head stock sides, Roller sides, etc., are streamed with 2.5 ata Steam at regular interval to curb the growth of micro-organism in some of the sugar factories. This is being replaced by hot water cleaning around 800C to conserve steam.

4.0 4.1

Adoption of new Sugar plant machinery and process Juice Clarifier: The conventional 444 clarifier is slowly getting replaced by Short Retention Time (SRT) Juice Clarifier. Normally juice retention in this SRT type of clarifier is 45 min as against 180 min in the conventional clarifier. SRT Clarifier eliminates the reduction of clear juice temperature at the outlet of the clarifier due to short retention time thereby saving in thermal energy in juice heating.

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SRT Juice Clarifier 4.2 Filtrate Juice Clarification: Filtrate juice from the Vacuum Filter/ Decanter is treated in the filtrate juice clarification system (either by flotation or sedimentation process), so that the clarified juice can be directly taken into the evaporator for further processing, which eliminates around 12% juice re-circulation in the clarification process. 4.3 Sugar Cane Juice Processing: Sugar cane Juice Processing for the production of sugar depends upon the juice clarification process; the following are the processes adopted to remove the impurities and coloring mater from the sugar cane juice. Defecation Process Double Sulphitation/Carbonation Process and Phosphatation Floatation Process The defecation & Phosphatation process are used to make raw sugar with colour value of about 800 ICUMCA. The double sulphitation/Carbonation Process are used to make direct consumable plantation white sugar with the colour value of around 150 ICUMCA. In India, traditionally double sulphitation process is adopted to make direct consumable plantation white sugar. As per Indian Sugar Standard Sulphur content allowed is 70 mg/kg (Max) for double sulphitation process and 15 mg/kg (Max) for refined sugar process. Sulphur content of 70 mg/kg in the sugar is not acceptable in the beverage industries and in some countries. Operation & maintenance of sulphur burners and SO2 gas lines are expensive and also the cost of sulphur is fluctuating. To avoid these difficulties, nowadays sugar
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factories are switching over to defecation process for raw sugar production followed by melt clarification and modified refining process with R1 & R2 massecuite boiling, to produce lustrous, sulphurless white sugar of less than 50 ICUMCA. Apart from that they are having the refinery columns for refined sugar production. By refinery process, sugar colour value comes down to 20 to 30 ICUMCA. 4.4 Muddy Juice Filtration: Muddy juice is currently being de-sweetened using rotary vacuum drum filters in most of the sugar factories in India. Vacuum filters work on the basis of vacuum filtration and in case of vacuum problem, the efficiency gets affected. In addition, higher sugar losses through filter cakes are experienced in vacuum filters. An alternative system for de-sweetening the muddy juice by using solid bowl decanters has been established with encouraging results. The decanters eliminate the bagacillo requirement and reduces pol loss in the mud.

View of Decanter Machine 5.0 Water conservation in Sugar Plants It is well known that sugar cane contains water to the extent of 70% to 72% of its weight. This water comes to the sugar factory along with sugar cane but still many factories draw huge quantity of fresh water to meet their process and cooling water requirements. Hence these factories are saddled with large quantity of effluent. The term fresh water is used to describe the water inputs to the factory that is drawn from river, local catchments and bore-wells. The factory prefers to use fresh water because of its low solids content and low temp. The term effluent is used to describe the factory liquid effluent discharged to surface water. Its quantity and quality depends on the sugar manufacturing technology and the cooling system deployed by the factory. A sugar factory requires process water as well as cooling water. The water content of the cane is adequate for the manufacture of cane sugar. By recycling and its reuse, the consumption of fresh water for the various cooling circuits can be minimized. Adoption of water conservation measures
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would further minimize the generation of effluent. A stand alone sugar mill after meeting its in house process and cooling water requirement should generate surplus water. Depleting water resources and restriction on use of ground water in most parts of the country for industrial use, has motivated technologists to develop less water intensive systems for sugar complexes and adopt ways and means to utilize the surplus water from the sugar mill, for meeting the makeup water requirement. Incidentally the sugar mill effluent has low levels of COD and BOD contamination and hence can be recycled after suitable treatment. 6.0 Sugar Cane Water circuit It is estimated that each tonn of fresh, clean cane entering the sugar mill would comprise of about 710 kgs. of water, 145kgs. of dissolved solids (sucrose, reducing sugars, impurities etc) and 145 kgs. of insoluble matter (fiber, dirt etc). Part of the water in cane is lost in the solid and liquid waste material leaving the premises of the sugar mill i.e. as moisture in bagasse, as vapours to the condensers, as moisture in filter cake, as moisture in lime grit and as moisture in final molasses. There would be variations in the quantity of water through the cane water circuit depending on the cane quality and the processing technology deployed. An estimate of the cane water circuit for the sugar mill with a rated capacity of 160 TCH is furnished below: S.No 1. 2. 3. 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 4.0 5.0. Sugar Cane input Water in Sugar Cane @ 71% Water out through various waste material through bagasse @ 15% cane through lime grit @ 0.1% cane through filter cake @ 3% cane through final molasses @ 0.5% cane through vapour lost to condensers @ 25% cane through vents and evaporation loss @ 4.4% cane Total water out in waste material @ 48% cane Excess water @ 23% cane Excess water per ton of cane t/hr t/hr t/hr t/hr t/hr t/hr t/hr t/hr lit/tc 24.0 0.2 4.8 0.8 40.0 7.0 76.8 36.8 230.0 Particulars Unit TCH t/hr Qty. 160.0 113.6

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The surplus condensate of about 36.8 tonnes per hour will be at a higher temperature and at a COD content of about 300 PPM and dissolved solid content of 100 PPM. This water can be cooled and treated further for reuse in the factory. 7.0 Conclusion By product Power project improves the profitability of the Sugar Industry. Energy Efficient Equipment improves the profitability of the Sugar Mills. Specific Electrical Energy consumption can be reduced by incorporating various Energy Efficient Equipments like Diffuser, VFD, Energy Efficient Transmission gears, pumps and motors, etc. and thereby power export to the grid can be increased. Reduction in process steam consumption will indirectly increase the surplus power export to grid. Energy Efficient Equipment increases the profitability of the sugar mills due to the increased revenue earned from the power projects. In near future, Sugar Mills without high pressure Co-Generation and energy efficiency will not be viable. Reduced water usage in a factory will also reduce the pollution from the sugar plants. The profitability of the sugar factory will improve with the adoption of energy and water conservation measures.

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