Overview
Galaxy Sivtek helped sugar mill in manufacturing high quality sugar crystal by filtering out fine suspended impurities from sugar syrup before it goes to centrifugal machine for crystalizing.
The sugar that adds sweetness to our food, beverages & medicines goes through a long process! From crushing sugarcane to drying down sugar crystal it has a wide process.
Our client owned the capacitive Sugar mill in Africa with a plant having capacity of producing xyz ton sugar per day. They were key producer of commercial grades of white & brown sugar.
The real process of sugar starts from growing & harvesting sugar canes. Sugar canes are then crushed to obtain mix juice. Mix juice is then passed thru screeners & separators to remove fibers. Mix Juice is then sent to clarifiers to obtain clear juice.
Clear Juice is further evaporated to reduce down the water percentage & obtain thick syrup. Sugar syrup is further bleached with alcohol & sugar crystal to get it in crystallized form. It is further moved to centrifuges (High Speed Rotating machines) to obtain sugar crystals & crystals are then sent to large dryers where hot air is blown to reduce humidity. Further crystals are cooled down in coolers & before packaging, crystals are graded as per market standards in multi deck screeners. So that’s how sugar is made!
Challenge
An alarming situation occurred when a multiple batch of sugar were rejected by QC department as it was of poor & low quality & did not match ICUMSA standards.
Looking up into the matter it was found that fine suspended impurities in sugar syrup were the reason for the low-quality batches.
Fine suspended impurities & extraneous matters (minute black particles) present in sugar syrup results into thick, more blackish & poor-quality syrup that does not match ICUMSA grade.
The rejected slots had to be reprocessed again with sugar melting process, the reprocessing increased their overheads including labour, time & cost.
Requirements
- Efficient & robust filtration machine for removing fine suspended impurities & extraneous matters from sugar syrup.
- Quick & easy cleaning arrangement as frequent cleaning between the batches would be required.
Production head of the mill contacted Galaxy Sivtek as he was familiar with our sieving & filtering solutions. Currently they are using our Vibro Separators for removing bagacillo from raw juice.
Mr. Milan Modi, Product sales manager – Africa, suggested them to install a horizontal screener before sugar syrup is sent for crystallizing so all fine suspended impurities & extraneous matters can be removed.
During the conversation Production head of the mill said, “During filtration very fine oversize particles would stick over the mesh & that might block the mesh. We would require an expeditious cleaning system that can help in removing oversized particles with ease.”
Solution & Result
After understanding the requirements, Mr Milan Modi suggested to install Linea Sivtek® along with Clean in Place (CIP) system & four material distribution inlet pipes on led.
Linea Sivtek® - The horizontal screening machine was suggested seeing the nature & characteristic of the material to be filtered i.e. sugar syrup.
Clean in Place (CIP) system was given to solve the problem of manually cleaning the screen. Clean in place system is engineered in way that would spray water with spray nozzles inside the screen as & when required.
Without material distribution inlet pipes, sugar syrup will fall on the screen rapidly & at one point only. This might result in tearing of screen & unequal distribution of syrup on screen.
To avoid wear & tear of screen and for equal distribution of syrup on screen four material distribution inlet pipes were given. Equal distribution enables optimal filtration of the material.
Result
The results were really good as every aspect was taken care of. From cleaning of screen to equal distribution of sugar syrup on screen, everything was properly designed & engineered that in return gave the exact expected results.
