THE BEAUTY OF BOILING

A Partial Assessment of Pan Automation

A Brief Report by Susan M. Flores, presented to the Factory Staff
of HPCO
July 25, 2009

Objectives:

To update ourselves of Whats new in the

Boiling House

To orient ourselves briefly about the
Boiling Automation

To know the possible effect or advantages
of this Automation

Introduction:
There is a call for every manufacturing firm to advance its system to attain high or optimum
efficiency to produce its product within or less cost of production without compromising its standard.
The worlds trends today in all aspects are now on computers and automation, its relevance to the
system and how it affects the lives of the people. It could be in schools (education), home,
institutions, workplace and others.
In Sugar Industry there is a competition per se in the product and how it manufactured
according to the worlds acceptability. The need to be affiliated in Global manner lead us to have all
the necessary requirements like HACCP, ISO accreditations and automation on process system
which we believe plays a vital role to be IN in todays standard. And these we are working towards
and looking forward to.
Process Automation is to be regarded as an important part of modern factory management
and organization. Since Vacuum Pan Control is said to be ---- perhaps the most difficult unit
operation to understand and control, (according to Mr.Chung Chi Chou of Cane Sugar Handbook
12th ed.,), more sugar centrals are leading or indulging into automation which is now become a
necessity to have a more effective, efficient and safe way in producing white sugar.
This report is the partial assessment of Pan Automation in the Boiling House Department of
Hawaiian-Philippine Company, which commenced only on the latter part of our Milling Season (CY
2008-2009) and it took only 49 days of commissioning period. The supposed Assessment which
should considerably covers at least one (1) whole Milling would have given us substantial (gathering
of) data and analyses for a more rigid, dependable and reliable evaluation for establishing a
standard parameters of Pan Boiling Automation.
Eycon HMI unit was installed and tested last March 9, 2009 to Vacuum Pan # 1, # 2, # 8 and
# 9 with the following corresponding boiling of special seed graining, B-masse and A-masse (for 8 #
9) respectively. The Commissioning Consultant was Mr. Eddie Sheppard of CONUTROL Instrument
Services and the in-house personnel assigned were Mr. Ian Deloso of Instrumentation and myself
as a Process Supervisor .

Features of HMI (Human Machine Interface) unit:

Pre-Set Profile

Finish Level
Charge Level
Seeding RF
Footing RF
Main RF
Active RF SP

Features of HMI (Human Machine Interface) unit:

Pre-Set Profile

% RF to % Pan Level Profile

Each Pan Boiling has an estimated established RF increment

according to Pan Level (depending on the target brix of Finished

massecuite/strike).

Chart Logging Profile

Sample Chart of Manually-Operated Boiling

Sample Chart of Pan # 1

Sample Chart of Pan # 2

Sample Chart of Pan # 9

Sample Chart of Pan # 8

(Non-cleaning of Magma)

Example of Vacuum Loss Reflected on the Chart Logging

On Vacuum & Steam control

-

Any sudden increase in

vacuum or any sudden fall in
steam pressure causes a risk
of forming secondary
grains, due to the reduction
in boiling temperature in the
pan.
from p. 682 of Handbook of
Cane Sugar Engineering by
E. Hugot, 2nd. Ed.

GATHERING OF DATA , ANALYSES &

COMPUTATIONS:
1. Laboratory Analyses:
i. Microscopic Crystal
Size Analysis for
Massecuites
- A strike sample is
analyzed using a
microscope to measure
actual sizes of all grains
randomly. Four (4) shots in
every angle of a sample
were executed for a well
representative analysis.
Each crystal is measured in
mm and recorded for the
computation of Coefficient
of Variation.

Boiling of Special C-seed (Pan # 1)

Boiling of B-masse (Pan # 2)

% C.V. = 26.05
% G.S. = 68.86

Boiling of A-masse (Pan # 8)

2. Computations:
i. For Massecuite and BD/SRS Sugar
-

A good measure of grain uniformity which is also termed as Coefficient

of Variability as what John G. Ziegler called is mostly considered to be
effective in comparing sugar quality with regards to size variation.

Working Equation:
From Perrys Chemical Engineers Handbook, 6th ed., eq. (19-11), p. 9-29;
% C.v.

100 ( PD16 % - PD84 %)

2 PD50 %

Where:
Cv

coefficient of variation, as a percentage

PD

particle diameter from intercept on ordinate axis

At percent indicated (based on the cumulative percent
on the log-probability scale)

Example Computation for % C.V. from

microscopic pictures:

Another statistical standard of computation for

Coefficient of Variation (% c.v.) is also applied as
comparative analysis since it represents population and
categorizing the desired Particle Diameter (PD) of the crystal
size.
Working Equation:
% c.v. =

standard deviation x 100

Mean

= measures the relative dispersion of crystals in

terms of sizes.

ii. Grain Size Analysis for

BD / SRS Sugar

A sugar sample is taken

after Drying and test
using the Tyler Mesh
Sieve with Mesh No.
10, 14, 20, 28 and 35.
Percent Retained for
every Sieve is weighed
and reported as %
Retained by Weight for
every Mesh Sieve.

Example G.S. Analysis of Strike #2480-8

Tyler Mesh #

Nom. Opening

% Retained

Retained on 10

1.651 mm

0.11

Retained on 14

1.168

0.89

Retained on 20

0.833

24.32

Retained on 28

0.589

47.08

Retained 0n 35

0.417

25.50

Passed thru 35

2.10


Note:

Good operation of a good pan will

produce sugar, as boiled, with C.v. in the
low 20s which is excellent, below 30 as
well operated, a C.v. of 40 represents
inferior work and higher values indicate
very poor sugar.

Effect on Automation:
1.Comparative Results for BD / SRS - Sugar
- using Grain Size Analysis on Tyler Mesh Retained at # 20 & 28
(0.833 and 0.589 mm) average size (or mean)
VP
#6
7
8
9
10

Before
62.69 mm
61.55
60.69
58.64
62.15

On/After
72.98
74.37
71.47
70.74
69.66

diff.
10.29
12.82
10.78
12.10
7.51

% inc.
14.10 %
17.24
15.08
17.10
10.78

Average Grain Size of BD-SRS Sugar

100
90
80
70
% Retained @ Tyler 60
Mesh No. 20 & 28 50
40
30
20
10

Before Automation
On Automation

Vacuum Pan #

10
Tyler Mesh Nominal Opening
# 20 --------- 0.833 mm
# 28 ---------- 0.589 mm

% G.S Stk #
Before

%
G.S
After

2773-9

56.88

2784-9

67.16

2764-8

64.43

2785-8

61.63

2772-8

61.35

2797-8

75.44

2750-6

63.95

2806-8

64.19

2760-8

58.49

2802-8

79.87

2759-9

64.20

2725-9

97.93

2756-8

65.39

2816-9

69.21

2749-7

77.33

2820-9

82.61

Modification of Magma Conditioning

( BDS/SRS-Masse)
% Retained @ Tyler
Mesh #20 & 28

Stk #

100
80
60

before

40

after

20
0
1

5 6

Random Selection of Strikes

Massecuite % C.v.
Seed/Strike

Ave. % C.v.

Special C-seed

15 35

B-masse

30 38 .Good

A masse

20 35 ..Good

Boiling

Excellent to Good

Advantages of Pan Automation

Increased Sugar Recovery

Improved Sugar Quality

Reduced Steam Use

Increased Safety

Reduced Operating Cost