PROCESS DESCRIPTION

Cane handling, Cleaning and preparation:

The cane stalks are unloaded from tractors/trucks to the cane
table and thoroughly washed and let to pass to sets of rotating
knives and fibrizers/shredder. The sets of Rotating knives cut
the cane into pieces, and fibrizers or shredders rapture the cell
of the sugar cane and then transferred to the mills by
conveyers for juice extraction process.

Milling (Juice extraction):

The prepared cane passes through a series of mills called

a tandem or milling train. These mills are composed of massive
horizontal cylinders or rolls in groups of three, one on the top
and two on the bottom in the triangle formation.. There are 3
rolls in series. The bottom two rolls are fixed, and the top is free
to move up and down. The rolls turn at 2 5 rpm, and the
velocity of the cane through them is 10- 25cm/s.
After passing through the mill, the fibrous residue, from
the cane, called bagasse, is carried to the next mill by bagasse
carriers and is directed from the first squeeze in a mill to the
second by turn plate. In order to, achieve a good extraction, a
system of imbibition is used, hot water is added to the first roll
crusher of the milling section. The combination of all these
juices from the 3 crushers of milling section is collected and
weighed .The result is called the mixed juice and is the material
that goes forward to make the sugar.

Bagasse:
The bagasse from the last mill contains 49-wt% water and
51% fibres .this bagasse is then fed to rotary drier to remove
moisture content . The dried bagasse is used for producing
steam in boiler .

Mixed juice tank :

The weighed juice is sent to the mixed juice tank in
which phosphoric acid is added because juices that do not
contain small amount of phosphates do not clarify well in the
clarifier. The mixed juice tank is then heated to around 65-70
C by the vapours from fourth and third bodies of evaporator .
This heating is called primary primary heating.

Reaction tank :
The heated juice from mixed juice tank is treated
with milk of lime , Ca(OH )2 ( hydrated calcium hydroxide)
of pH(7-7.2) and sulphur di-oxide (sO2) to coagulate
maximum impurities . The secondary heating is done
with vapours from second and first body of evaporator
to a temperature of 102 C . Heat and lime stop
enzyme action in juice and raise PH to minimize
inversion. Control of PH is important because sucrose
inverts , or hydrolyzes , to its components , glucose and
fructose , acid PH < 7 , and all three sugars decompose
quickly at high PH > 11.5
The reaction takes place in reaction tank :
Ca +2+ H PO 42CaH PO 4 ( precipitate )

Clarification:
A large fraction of the suspended material is removed by
settling in clarifier . clear juice flows off the upper part of the
clarifier ; muds are withdrawn below. Muddy juice is pumped to
rotary vaccum filters , and residual sucrose is washed out with
water spray on the rotating filter . clear (clarified ) juice is
pumped to a series of multiple effect evaporators , where
steam from one effect heats the next effect. The filter cake
from vaccum filter is used for compost yard .
The equipment used for clarification is Dorr type clarifier. It
consists of a vertical cylindrical vessel composed of a number
of trays with conical bottoms stacked one over the other. The
limed raw juice enters the centre of each tray and flows toward
the circumference. A sweep arm in each tray turns quite slowly
and sweeps the settled mud toward a central mud outlet. The
clear juice from the top circumference overflows into a header.

Evaporation :
Cane juice has sucrose concentration of normally 15%.
The solubility of sucrose in water is about 72%. The
concentration of sucrose must reach the solubility point before
crystals can start growing. This involves the removal by
evaporation of 93% of the water in the cane juice. Since water
has the largest of all latent heats of vaporization, this involves a
very large amount of energy.
Multiple effect evaporation
method is used for concentration of juice . The steam used is
exhaust steam from turbines driving electrical generators. The
L.P steam at a pressure of 126 Kpa and 106 C is used in first
effect . In each succeeding effect, the vapours from the
previous effect are used to supply heat. This works only
because each succeeding effect is operating at a lower
pressure and hence boils at lower temperature. The usual
evaporator equipment is a vertical body juice-in-tube unit. The
only auxiliary equipment is the vacuum pump.
The evaporation is carried on to a final brix of 65 68. The
juice, after evaporation, is called syrup and is very dark brown,

almost black, and a little turbid . The syrup is sent to vaccum

pans for boiling .

Vaccum pans (crystallisation):

Vacuum pans have a small heating element in
comparison to the very large liquor and vapour space above it.
The heating element was formerly steam coils but is now
usually a chest of vertical tubes called calandria. The sugar is
inside the tubes. There is a large center opening (downcomer)
for circulation. The vacuum pan has a very large discharge
opening: typically 1 m dia. At the end of a strike, the
massecuite contains more crystals than syrup and is therefore
very viscous.This large opening is required to empty the pan in
a reasonable time. At the top or down of the pan, there are
viscous entrainment separators. The pan may also be equipped
with a mechanical stirrer. In operation, the boiling is very
vigorous with much splashing of liquid. The vacuum is
maintained mostly by condensing the vapours in a barometric
condenser
The massecuites from the vacuum pans enter a holding
tank called a mixer that has a very solely turning paddle to
prevent the crystals from settling.
With the use of vacuum pan crystallizer, the pressure is
reduced so as to super saturate the sugar solution at a vapour
temperature of 70 C . After supersaturation the formation of
crystals starts. When the volume of massecuite (sugar solution
+ crystals) exceeds certain limit, then it is transferred to
centrifuge for separation.

Centrifuge :
The mixture of crystals and syrup is called masscuite. The
masscuite from crystallizer is centrifuged in basket type
centrifuged to basket type to centrifuge remove mother liquor
(molasses) which is a byproduct. The high grade sugar crystals

are obtained here. The centrifuge speed is maintained at 800 to

1000 rpm. The molasses is sent to distillery unit .

Packing, storing and shipping:

Sugar is sometimes stored in bulk and then packaged as
needed. Others package the sugar and then warehouse the
packages. The present trend is away from consumer sized
packages and toward bulk shipments .