CHAPTER ONE

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of sugar
Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are
used in food. They are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of
sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include
glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose, and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most
customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into
fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars
are called oligosaccharides. Chemically different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are
not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as
sweeteners.

The word "sugar" is derived from the Sanskrit word "Sharkara", which describes materials in a
granular form. People were arguing that whether sugarcane is native to India or New Guinea.
They do agree that ancient people liked it and carried with them in their migration and spread
throughout south pacific area. Although sugar cane was possibly known in the holy land in
biblical time only syrups could be obtained from it. In the 7th- 10th centuries AD, the Arabs
spread sugarcane throughout their region of influence in the Mediterranean and eastwards. By
the 12th century sugarcane reached Europe and Marco polo reported advanced sugar refining in
china toward the end of 13th century. The ancient process for obtaining sugar consisted of
boiling the juice until solids formed as the syrup cooled. Egyptians were using lime as purifying
agent and carrying out re crystallization, which is still the main step in refining [11]. Sugar was
first consumed in England in 1099. Sugar entered Spain, Sicily and other areas of the
Mediterranean, strongly influencing regional cuisine of the day. At that time sugar was a luxury
that only the wealthy could afford. It was called white gold because of its scarcity and high
cost. It is recorded, for instance that sugar was available in London at two shilling a pound in
1319 AD.

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This equates to about US$100 per kilo at todays price. With the opening of the New World
following the voyages of Christopher Columbus, sugar production became profitable. On his
second trip to the New World, in 1493, he took sugar cane plants to grow in the Caribbean. The
climate there was so advantageous for the growth of the cane that an industry was quickly
established. Today the European Union, Brazil and India are the three top producers of sugar and
together account for some 40% of the annual production. Sugar Industry is one of the industries,
which contribute immensely for the industrial transformation of our country. The country has
huge labor and resources like water, suitable climate and ideal landscape to expand this export-
oriented manufacturing industry [9].

1.2 Problem statement

Sugar consumption continues to its upward climb as consumer income increases and diets
change, though most sugar used when drinking coffee and tea. While consumption has increased
in recent years, the countrys annual per capita consumption levels are still some of the lowest in
the world at about 5 to 6 kilograms and there are continuous shortages of sugar in the
marketplace. In recent years, nearly one-third of the sugar being consume in the country is
imported. Going forward, however, the government of Ethiopia (GOE) anticipates that there will
be sufficient supplies of local sugar to satisfy demand, thereby, making imports unnecessary.
However, post expects that there will be periodic local shortages early on after Ethiopia starts
exporting sugar, but that these gaps should dissipate over time as local production increases to
satisfy local demand. The Ethiopian local market has been hit by a serious shortage of sugar with
several retailers in the country going for days without the commodity. Many of the stores in our
country did not have the product on their shelves and customers said they had to move from one
shops to the other in search of the commodity. Where it is available, it sells for as much as 50
birr per Kg.

The shortages is strongly felt at cafeterias and restaurants that serve a strong shots of espresso
heavily laced with sugar. Honey is being used at some of the cafes as alternative to sweeten tea
and coffee. So, this project studies nowadays condition of the sugar and tries to minimize the
shortage of sugar in our country; by producing sugar from sugar cane in our country.

PROJECT ON NEW SUGAR PRODUCTION PLANT DESIGN

1.3 Objectives of the project

1.3.1 General objective

To design a new Sugar factory this uses sugarcane as a raw material.

1.3.2. Specific objective

To minimize the shortages of sugar in our country

To Creates, the job opportunity to citizens.

To minimize, the foreign currency expense to import sugar.

Reduce energy generation cost

Getting additional profit from the production of sugar

To assess the way that the factories energy generation and utilization

To show the general benefits to other existing as well as new sugar factories.

1.4. Significance of the project

To deal students with plant design concepts

To deal students with the concept of economic estimation of chemical plant preliminary
designs.
This project helps us to know the world and local conditions of the sugar production, the
way to produce sugar from sugar cane.
To minimize the shortage of sugar availability in the market or in the society. It creates
the job opportunity.
This project makes a profitable businessperson for the investor by gaining of profit from
the selling of the product.

1.5. Scope of the project

This project covers all necessary informations about sugar that needs to know everybody. It
starts from the definition of sugar to cost estimation and evaluations of the plant. Besides to this,
the project deals with the capacity of the plant, process description of sugar production,
production program of the plant, selection of raw materials, material and energy balances,
designing of equipments and plant location of the envisaged plant.

PROJECT ON NEW SUGAR PRODUCTION PLANT DESIGN

1.6 Limitation

Certain factor that limit this project are inefficient equipment or poor equipment used and also in
sufficient chemical are used for experiment for this project due to the first project as taken and
there is shortage of information regarding with good implementation of the design expert.

PROJECT ON NEW SUGAR PRODUCTION PLANT DESIGN

 CHAPTER TWO

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Sugar production in Ethiopia started in 1954/55 when the Wonji Sugar Factory was
commissioned and produced 15,843 tons of white sugar in the first campaign. When sugarcane
development began in 1951, Dutch Company owned the company. The development of the
sugarcane plantation was started on 5000 hectares in the upper reaches of the Awash basin,
100km. Southeast of Addis Ababa [10]. Ethiopia has favorable climate for sugarcane
development. It also has more than 500 thousand hectares of irrigable land suitable for the sector.
Moreover, it has abundant untapped water resource. These make the sector seek more attention
and a coordinated effort. Until the downfall of the former regime, sugar factories in Ethiopia
were limited to Wonji Shewa and Matahara only. It was then that Fincha Sugar Factory has come
into existence. But, starting from 2010 the government has expanded the industry to regions like
SNNP, Oromiya, Afar, Amhara and Tigray.

Figure2. 1 Harvesting of sugar cane

The industry in addition to producing sugar produces numerous by-products and co products.
Few among them are power, animal feed, ethanol, inputs for paint, glass and other products [13].
Currently, there are three large-scale sugar establishments in the country; two of them in the
Awash Basin (Wonji/shewa and Metehara) and one (Finchaa) in the Blue Nile Basin. The
present level of national production from the three-sugar estates is about 261,041 tons of sugar
and 87,257 tons of molasses per annum respectively. These three sugar factories have a
production capacity of 280,000 tons of sugar annually. The total area developed by these
factories is 23,769 hectares.

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The area developed at Wonji/Shewa is 7050 hectares (5930 hectares estate and 1120 hectares out
grower farms) capable of producing 80,000 tons of sugar per annum. The Metehara Sugar
Factory, which was brought on stream in 1969 by HVA at Metehara, developed 9919 hectares
and has a capacity to process 115,000 tons of sugar annually. The Finchaa Sugar Factory (in East
Wellega zone of the Oromia National Regional State) which was completed in 1998. Developed
6800 hectares and has a production capacity of 85,000 tons of sugar per annum. These sugar
companies presently produce sugar for the local market. White sugar is mainly imported from
the neighboring countries such as Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Somalia & India in quantities ranging
between 10,000 to 163,000. At present there are additional three sugar plantations are developing
by the government. Tana beles sugar project is developing in 50,000 hectares with a production
capacity 484,000 tons, Kuraz sugar project is developing in 150,000 hectares with a production
capacity of 556,000 tons, Wolkayit sugar project is developing in 25,000 hectares with a
production capacity of 242,000 tons, Tendaho Sugar project is 60,000 hectares with a production
capacity of 580,800 tons and Kessem sugar project is [10].

2.2 Product Description and Application

Sugar, or sucrose, is a carbohydrate that occurs naturally in every fruit and vegetable in the plant
kingdom. It is the major product of photosynthesis, the process by which plants transform the
sugar energy into food. Sugar occurs in greatest quantities in sugar cane and sugar beets from
which it is separated for commercial use [16]. Sugar has become one of the essential food
consumption items in the country especially in urban areas. Though per capita sugar
consumption in Ethiopia is one of the lowest in the world, the volume of consumption has been
growing steadily since the establishment of the first sugar cane plantations-cum-sugar mills in
the Awash Valley in the early 1950s. As a sweetening food item, sugar is used in preparing all
types of drinks (coffee, tea, soft drinks, juices, etc.) and foods (pastries, bread of special types,
etc.) [3]. The industrial practice in Ethiopia is the production of sugar from sugar cane. The
product is mainly used for direct consumption, but also is used to prepare other types of foods
such as, biscuits, confectioneries, breweries, soft drinks, etc [16].

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2.3. World demand

The World sugar production in 2010-11 was 168 million tones, 7.4 million tons higher than in
2009-10. This increased world production is expected to occur in response to high world sugar
prices, although production increases were limited by adverse weather conditions in many
producing countries, including Australia, Brazil, China, Pakistan and Thailand. World
production of the year 2011-12 was recorded 177.3 million tones it increases by a further 9.4
million tons from the year of 2010-11. This production reflects an expected increase in sugar
production in both Brazil and India that together account for around 40 per cent of world sugar
production. Higher production is also forecast for Thailand, Pakistan and China. Demand for
sugar has not been very responsive to the recent high world indicator price because sugar is a
staple food in most countries and the prices paid by consumers in some major countries are
partially insulated from world price changes by government policies. Consumption tends to
respond more strongly to changes in income, especially in developing countries. The World
sugar consumption growth rate of the year 2010-11 was recorded as 2 per cent and it slightly
increase to 2.2 per cent in 2011-12. The ratio of world sugar closing stocks to use is forecast to
decline slightly to 34.3 per cent in 2010-11 compared with 34.9 per cent in 2009-10. If realized,
this will be the lowest since 2003-06. Although the stocks-to-use ratio was recover to 37.1 per
cent in 2011-12, this would still be below the average of around 40 per cent over the 10 years to
2009-10.The data, measured in millions of metric tons, raw value, are from the London-based
International Sugar Organization. (10)

Country Production

1) Brazil 38.745

2) India 26.000

3) China 11.475

4) Thailand 10.061

5) U.S. 7.210

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 6) Mexico 5.495

7) Pakistan 4.400

8) France 4.275

9) Australia 3.800

10) Germany 3.565

2.3.1. Local demand study

Sugar in Ethiopia, serves for direct household consumption and as an intermediate input for other
industries like pastries, bottling companies and breweries. The per capita consumption in
Ethiopia is one of the lowest in the world. The current level of per capita consumption is
estimated to be about 3.6 kg, which is even below the world average minimum of 5 to 6 kg. The
Ethiopian consumption of sugar was forecasted for the coming 10 years, taking into account the
Ethiopian population of above 100 million in 2015/2016, population growth rate per annum of
2.9% and an annual average economic growth rate of 11%. It is assumed that the per capita sugar
consumption could increase at the rate of the economic growth of the nation. After the year, 2018
there will be a surplus supply of sugar for export. Thus, the consumption of sugar as an
intermediate input and the household consumption indicate that the existence of enough local
market that commercially justifies investment in the sector [10].

2.3.2. Present Demand and Supply

At present, there are three large-scale sugar establishments in the country. These establishments
have a production capacity of 280,000 tons of sugar annually.
In addition to the existing cane sugar establishments, new sugar projects are under construction
where one project has started production at the end of 2015 while the other is expected to be
completed in the year 2016/17. The current domestic supply of sugar is estimated to reach about
300 thousand tons per annum. Nonetheless, currently the demand for sugar is by far greater than
the supply that pushed the market price to a very high level (birr 16/kilo). This gap between
demand and supply required the importation of substantial amount of sugar from abroad.
Accordingly, the government has imported 150 thousand tons of sugar in March 2016 in a bid to

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stabilize the sugar market. This quantity is half of what the three state-owned sugar factories
produce annually. In view of the increasing demand, the country plans to increase its annual
sugar production to 1.3 million tons by the year 2019. All this suggests the presence of
substantial and growing demand for sugar [3].
Sugar is consumed by households as well as different industries such as confectioneries, food
processing and beverage industries, institution like colleges and universities, military, hotels,
restaurants and bars. Due to its wide application in different sectors the demand for sugar is very
huge in the domestic as well as international markets. Ethiopia has been meeting most of its
sugar requirement through local production. However, due to the shortages created in the past
few years nearly 20% of sugar requirement was met through import [16].

The historical domestic production and consumption/sales data of sugar is shown in Table 1.

PROJECT ON NEW SUGAR PRODUCTION PLANT DESIGN