Sugarcane Juice

Client’s profile:

Africa’s leading & renowned sugar and sugar-related products manufacturer and dealers. The company was into the production of various sugar-related products like sugar crystals, liquid sugar, brown sugar, jaggery, etc.

About the product:

Sugar cane is a crop that is processed into sugar. Bagasse, molasses, and filter cake are all by products of this process. After cane juice is extracted, bagasse is the dry fibre left over

Refining sugar further purifies it. It is combined with heavy syrup and centrifuged after being mixed. As a result, the sugar crystals’ outer coating is washed away, which is less pure than the crystal’s interior. Once all the sugar has been dissolved, a syrup of 60% solids is formed.

To clarify sugar solution, phosphoric acid and calcium hydroxide are added, which precipitate calcium phosphate. The calcium phosphate particles entrap some impurities and absorb others, and then float to the top of the tank, where they can be skimmed off. An alternative to this “phosphatising” technique is “carbonatation”, which is similar, but uses carbon dioxide and calcium hydroxide to produce a calcium carbonate precipitate.

After decolouring syrup, it is filtered through activated carbon and crystallised to produce white refined sugar. Some remaining impurities are adsorbed by the carbon to remove colour-forming impurities. The purified syrup is then concentrated to supersaturation and crystallized in a vacuum.

Challenges:

The customer was facing a huge task for screening of 125m³/hr for which they require very big screening machine capable of performing this task but manufacturing such a big machine is not viable and the required efficiency could also not be achieved.

The second problem that was faced by the manufacturer was cleaning of the mesh after every batch of screening the syrup. Because of which he required a lot of manpower and it also consumed time in doing so.

The third challenge that the producer was facing was the distribution system from the overhead buffer tank to the vibrating screen, there the flow had to be regulated and divided equally on the vibrating screen.

Solutions and Result:

The giant agglomerate got in touch with the Sivtek experts and shared their concern, after thorough discussion and understanding of the challenges and problems of the customer, the sales team and the design team came up with multiple solutions to solve the problems occurring at different stages of the sugar syrup production.

First, the challenge of screening 125m³/hr was solved by providing 3 giant Vibro screens of 84” diameter, with single deck and mesh deblinding arrangement to unclog the mesh during the processing was given.

The second hurdle was solved by giving a CIP (Clean in place) system for all the 3 machines where a pressurised spray of cleaning fluid was sprayed onto the mesh, a separate pressure arrangement was also given to regulate the flow of the fluid.

The final challenge of the equal distribution was given by custom building a stainless steal distribution system and giving a diverter valve which could be manually adjusted depending upon the requirement and flow of the material. To equally divide the sugar syrup, flow the diverter valve was opened 33.33% on all the vibrating screens, allowing the flow of 42m³/hr on each screen.

Result:

The customized solution provided not just helped them to achieve the desired output but also helped to solve the main issues of processing such a big amount and dividing the amount equally without choking of the mesh.