Sugar Industry

Dr. Noaman Ul-Haq

What is Sugar?
What we call sugar,
sugar the chemist knows as
sucrose, in the grouping called carbohydrates.

The simplest
p
of the sugars
g
is g
glucose,, C6H12O6
Sucrose, C12H22O11, is a condensation molecule
made up of two glucose molecules.
Prepared by Dr. Noaman Ul-Haq

How Sugar is formulated?

The p
process wherebyy p
plants make sugars
g
is p
photosynthesis.
y
The p
plant
takes in carbon dioxide from the air though pores in its leaves and absorbs
water through its roots. These are combined to make sugar using energy
from the sun and with the help of a substance called chlorophyll.
chlorophyll Chlorophyll
is green which allows it to absorb the sun's energy more readily and which,
of course, gives the plants' leaves their green color. The reaction of
photosynthesis
h t
th i can be
b written
itt
as the
th following
f ll i
chemical
h i l equation
ti
when
h
sucrose is being made:
12 CO2 + 11 H2 O = C12 H22 O11 + 12 O2
carbon + water = sucrose
dioxide

+ oxygen

Prepared by Dr. Noaman Ul-Haq

Statistics of Sugar
StatisticsofSugar
Sugar is produced in 121 Countries.
Global production now exceeds 120
Million tons a year.
Per Capita annual consumption is 30 46
kg.
Approximately 70% is produced from
sugar cane.
The remaining 30% is produced from
sugar beet.
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History of Sugar
It is thought that cane sugar was first used by man in
P l
Polynesia
i from
f
where
h
it spread
d to
t India.
I di
In 510 BC the Emperor Darius of what was then Persia
invaded India where he found "the reed which gives
h
honey
without
ith t bees.
b

It was the major expansion of the Arab peoples in the

seventh century AD that led to a breaking of the secret.
When they invaded Persia in 642 AD they found sugar
cane being grown and learnt how sugar was made.
Sugar was only discovered by western Europeans as a
result of the Crusades in the 11th Century AD.
AD
In the 15th century AD, European sugar was refined in
Venice.
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Sugar Manufacturing Process

1. Growing
g & Harvesting
g the Cane
2. Cane preparation for Milling
3. Milling
4 Clarification
4.
Cl ifi ti
5. Filtration
6 Evaporation
6.
7. Crystallization
8. Centrifugation
9. Drying
10. Refining
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 Cane weighting
The cane is generally weighted on large
platform scale in the transport unit in which it
is received at the mill-railway car, trailer cart o
the like, where direct weighting is
impracticable.
impracticable

Cane cleaning equipment

As apart of the cane carrier or auxiliary to itit, is
a process of cleaning the cane by water from
associated mud resulting due to harvesting
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2 Cane Preparation for Milling

2.
The milling
gp
process may
y be separated
p
into tow
steps, the preparation of the cane by breaking
down the hard structure and purring the cell, and
the actual g
grinding
g the cane. The p
preparation
p
of
the cane is accomplished in several ways
1. By revolving cane knifes that cut the cane into chips
but extracted no juice.
2. By shredders that tear the cane into shreds but
extract no juice.
3 By crushers that break and crush the structure of
3.
the cane, extracting a large proportion of the juice.
4. By combination of any or all of the previous ways.

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3 Milling
3.
Milling
g Machinery
y is composed
p
of three rollers
arranged in triangular form.
A set of three to seven machines.
Each mill unit is commonly driven by separate
motor power, steam engine, electric motor, or
steam turbine.
The
Th th
three rolls
ll are kknown respectively
ti l as th
the ttop
roll, the cane roll (entering) or feed roll, the
bagasse roll or discharge roll.
Adding water or thin juice to the bagasse after
each mill dilutes the content juice and increases
p
the extraction as this jjuice is expressed.
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4 Clarification
4.
The primary object of the clarification is to
remove from the juice the maximum
quantity
q
y of impurities.
p
The degree of clarification has great
g on the subsequent
q
stations of the
bearing
factory, affecting the pan boiling, the
centrifuging, the quality of the products,
and
d mostt iimportant
t t off all,
ll the
th yield
i ld off raw
sugar.
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 During Clarification following Chemicals

are Added.
1. Soluble phosphates (P2O5):

clearer juice.
fewer lime salts in clarified juice.
more rapid settling.
faster mud filtration.
better sugar
sugar.

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2. Polymer flocculants:

iincreases settling
ttli rate.
t
reduces mud volume.
decreases poly in cake
cake, and
most important increases the clarity of the clarified
juice.

3. Lime (as milk) :

in order to raise pH to 7

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 Result of clarification:
The clarification process divides the whole
juice into two portions:
1 Th
1.
The clarification
l ifi ti th
thatt comprises
i
80 tto 90% off th
the
original juice, almost invariable, goes to the
evaporators
p
without further treatment.
2. The precipitated settling, the scrums or mud
waters; which are filtered after various methods
of treatment.
treatment

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5 Filtration
5.
In filtration p
process the rotaryy -type
yp vacuum filter
is commonly used.
The filter consists of rotating drum covered with
perforated plate of copper or other metal,
metal which
dips into a bath containing the mud water.
The filter divided into four sections.
Hot water and Bagacillo are added to the mud to
increase filtration efficiency.
Filtration Result:
Clarified Juice Sent directly to the evaporators.
Filter Cake.
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6. Evaporation &
7.Crystallization
C
lli i
Evaporation of water from the sugar
solution is to yield a final crystalline
product.
product
p
is done in two stages:
g
The evaporation
1. First in an evaporator station: to concentrate
the solution.
2. Second in Evapo- Crystallizer: to crystallize
the sugar from solution.
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 Evaporation:
Removes about 90% of the water from the
clarified juice;
The
Th multiple-effect
l i l ff
is
i usually
ll extended
d d to
three, four, and more effects.
Evaporation
E
ti increasing
i
i th
the jjuice
i solids
lid ffrom
about 15 Brix to about 65-70 Brix. Which is
the Syrup.
Syrup

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 Evapo- Crystallizers:
The function of evapo-crystallizer is to
produce satisfactory sugar crystals from syrup
(seed grain) to serve as the nuclei for the
sugar syrup.
When Brix reaches 78-80, crystals begin to
appear and the nature of the material
changes.
changes
Its then called massecuite.

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8 Centrifugation
8.
The basic function of the Centrifugal
machines is to the crystals in the
g
massecuite from the surrounding
molasses or syrup by centrifugal force.
The Raw sugar
g is then sent to dryers
y
or
refining unit according to the type of
desired final product.
Molasses is by-product which is used as a
raw material for other products.
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9 Drying
9.
The wet raw sugar from centrifuges goes
to rotary drier to remove the water from
the wet sugar to reduce moisture content
to 0.5-2%; using hot air at 110C which
flow counter currently with sugar
sugar.

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10 Refining
10.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H
H.
I.

Affination
Melting
Carbonation
Filtration
Charring
VacuumPans
CentrifugalMachines
D i
Drying
Packaging
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A. Affination
A.Affination
Mixed
MixedwithRawSyrup
with Raw Syrup fromapreviousbatch
from a previous batch
tosoftentheadheringmolasses,theresulting
Magma isspuninCentrifugalMachines to
washoffasmuchmolassesaspossible.
Thenewlywashedandcollectedrawsyrupis
partlyusedinfurthermagma,theremaining
sugarfromtherestbeingrecoveredbyboiling
i
invacuumpans.Themolassesisusedin
Th
l
i
di
distilling,andascattlefeed.
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 Affination is the key to good refining because one

gets the best improvement in quality for the least
capital
it l and
d running
i cost.
t The
Th mixture
i t
off syrup and
d
raw sugar crystals is called the magma, and
rightly so because it is an extremely viscous dark
b
brown
li id mixture
liquid
i t
nott unlike
lik the
th magma flowing
fl i
from some volcanoes.
Careful control of its temperature
p
and liquid
q
content are critical:
too much liquid leads to excessive dissolution of the
relativelyy pure sugar
g crystals;
y
too little liquid and the coating will not be washed off, nor
will the liquid phase spin off the crystals;
too low a temperature and the coating will not soften and
wash
h off,
ff nor will
ill the
th liquid
li id phase
h
spin
i off
ff the
th crystals;
t l
too high a temperature and extra colour will form as sugar
degrades;

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 Typical operating conditions would be to

h
have
th
the magma att about
b t 10% water
t
content at 70 C. Once the crystals are
recovered,
d th
they are di
dissolved
l d up tto make
k
a sugar liquor of about 50% solids content
f passing
for
i fforward
d tto the
th nextt stage
t
off
refining.

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B. Melting
B.Melting
The sugar from affination and recovery is
stirred and dissolved in hot water to the
correct concentration,
concentration whilst strainers
and brushes remove foreign objects.

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C. Carbonation
C.Carbonation
The solution is treated with Milk of Lime,
Lime
and Carbon Dioxide is bubbled through it
causing the chalk to precipitate removing
further impurities....

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 Carbonatation is achieved by adding milk

off lime
li
( l i
(calcium
h
hydroxide,
d id C
Ca(OH)
(OH)2) to
t
the liquor and bubbling carbon dioxide
th
through
h th
the mixture.
i t
Th
The gas, which
hi h iis
obtained by cleaning up the flue gas from
th b
the
boiler,
il reacts
t with
ith th
the lilime tto fform fifine
crystalline particles of calcium carbonate
which
hi h occlude
l d th
the solids.
lid T
To obtain
bt i a
stable floc, the pH and temperature of the
reaction,
ti
th
the processes are carefully
f ll
controlled.
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 The filtration is usually undertaken with rotary

leaf filters where the liquor is pumped from
the outside of the leaf to the middle where the
clear liquor is collected. As the layer of floc
builds up on the leaf it increases the pressure
drop across the system until the filter is
effectively choked and taken off line for
cleaning.
l
i
Th
The lilime mud
d th
thatt iis collected
ll t d when
h
cleaning the filters is still wet with sugar liquor
so it is de-sweetened
de sweetened by slurrying with water the resultant sweet water is used elsewhere
in the process - and re-filtering it to a 50%
moisture mud
mud. The mud is then dumped or
used as lime on fields.

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 Phosphatation is a slightly more complex

process that is achieved by adding
phosphoric acid to the liquor after it has
been limed in the same way as above
above. In
the presence of a small amount of lime
phosphate
p
precipitate
p
p
is
sucrate a calcium p
formed which is removed by a flotation
process. The clean liquor is usually filtered
to remove any remaining fine
f
particles off
precipitate. The flotation scum is
desweetened by re-slurrying
re slurrying it and floating
it again.
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D. Filtration
D.Filtration
which are then filtered off
off, the resulting
Brown Liquor being sparkling bright and
pale yellowish brown in colour.
colour

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E Charring (Decolourisation)
E.
By running the brown liquor through filters
of small granules of Bone Charcoal, it is
decolourised and purified
purified, leaving a waterwater
white Fine Liquor.

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 Granular activated carbon is the modern equivalent of bone

char, a carbon granule made from animal bones. Today's
carbon is made by specially processing mineral carbon to give
a granule which is highly active but also very robust: it can
withstand the mechanical abrasion that results from
transporting it around the plant.
The carbon is used in the process in very large columns,
perhaps 10 or more metres high. The sugar liquor, at about
65% dry solids, is pumped through 2 columns in series.
Because
B
off limitations
li it ti
iin di
distributing
t ib ti th
the liliquor across th
the
width of large columns it is quite normal to split the total liquor
flow into three or more parallel streams, each of which passes
through
g ap
pair of columns. The first column of the p
pair has
been in use for some time while the second column is fresher.
When the carbon in the first column reaches is practical limit
of absorption, that column is switched out of line, the second
column
l
b
becomes th
the fi
firstt column
l
and
d a column
l
with
ith ffresh
h
carbon becomes the second column.

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 In a typical refinery with say 3 streams of

li
liquor,
a column
l
will
ill come off
ff liline every
three days so any one column has a life of
18 days
d
off which
hi h 9 are hard
h d working
ki iin th
the
first column position.
Decolourization with granular activated
carbon typically achieves 90%
effectiveness: a 1200 color liquor entering
the system will depart at about 120 color.

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F. Vacuum Pans
F.VacuumPans
The
ThefineliquorisnowdrawnintotheVacuum
fine liquor is now drawn into the Vacuum
Pans forconcentrationandcrystalisation.Itis
Evaporated underreducedpressuretoform
under reduced pressure to form
SugarCrystals.
(...whichmaysoundeasy,butrequiresallthe
skills of the highly experienced Pansmen to
skillsofthehighlyexperiencedPansmen
to
achievethecorrectcrystalisation.)
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G. Centrifugal Machines
G.CentrifugalMachines
The
Thesolutionofmothersyrupandcrystalsis
solution of mother syrup and crystals is
thenspuninCentrifugalMachines leavingthe
White Sugar Crystals whicharethenwashed.
WhiteSugarCrystals
which are then washed
(...andthemothersyrupisfurtherusedto
produce Golden Syrup andlowergrademoist
produceGoldenSyrup
and lower grade moist
sugars.)

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H. Drying
H.Drying
ThewetsugarisDried
The wet sugar is Dried inacurrentofhotair.
in a current of hot air

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I. Packaging
I.Packaging
After
Aftergrading,theDryGranulatedSugar
grading the Dry Granulated Sugar is
is
packeted forthedomesticmarket,andbagged
for the commercial market
forthecommercialmarket.

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