The papers presented at the Meeting are listed below, linked to an abstract of the paper.
#936 Keynote Speaker : [Professor Dr. Markwart Kunz, Sudzucker]
#937 Biotech in Sugarbeet and Sugarcane: Current Status
#938 Beet Thick Juice Degradation During Storage
#939 Successful Implementation of an Automated Certificate of Analysis System
#940 A Comparative Evaluation of Carbonatation and Phosphatation
#941 Direct Processing of Carbonated Melt - Economics and Benefits
#942 Symposia
#943 Südzucker Ag, Mannheim/Ochsenfurt, Factory Zeitz
#944 Storage and Production of VHP and VLC Sugars
#945 The Ups and Downs of Energy Savings at Redpath Sugars
#946 Modern Concepts for Sugar Drying and Cooling
#947 Screening Solutions to Face the Development and Transformation of the Sugar Industry
#948 Latest Developments in Liquor Decolorization using Ion Exchange and Chromatography
#949 The Power of One - Integrating the Business and Control Systems of Disparate Refineries
#950 The Microwave Premium-Package for Determination of Brix and Density
#951 Zero Discharge Technologies for Alcohol Production Plants
#952 Sugar: Booming Business!
#953 Cooling the Sugar: an Important Step to Ensure Optimal Storage and Packaging Conditions
#954 Color Measurement - Are All Methods Equal?
#955 Extended Overview of Microwave Density Application in the new Bogazliyan Sugar Factory
#956 Sucrose Crystallization - Impurity Effects on Colour Adsorption
#936 SÜDZUCKER - A EUROPEAN FOOD GROUP
Professor Dr. Markwart Kunz, Sudzucker, Germany
No abstract available at this time.
#937 BIOTECH IN SUGARBEET AND SUGARCANE: CURRENT STATUS
Charley Richard, SPRI, New Orleans LA, USA and Tom Schwartz, Beet Sugar Development Foundation, Denver CO, USA
In 2007 the total biotech crop area in the world reached 114.3 million hectares (30 million acres). This occurred in 23 countries comprised of 12 developing countries and 11 industrial countries. The top 12 countries are the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, China, Paraguay, South Africa, Uruguay, Philippines, Australia and Spain.
The North American beet sugar industry entered the world of biotechnology in 2006 with a commercial demonstration in Idaho and followed that with a commercial demonstration in Michigan in 2007. This paper will discuss the events which led up to these demonstrations, the results of these two demonstrations, and the future development for biotechnology in the beet sugar sector.
The U.S. cane sugar industry has experimental varieties of biotech sugarcane grown in various regions examining the importance of various traits. In an attempt to investigate commercialization, the industry is now conducting an analysis of the cost/benefit ratio along with other issues involved with biotechnology. This paper also discusses the attempts by other sugar industries to move sugarcane biotechnology forward.
#938 BEET THICK JUICE DEGRADATION DURING STORAGE
Gilles Schrevel, Raffinerie Tirlemontoise SA, Tienen, Belgium
1. Analyses of industrial thick juice samples
Aerococcus bacteria are proven to be able to cause thick juice degradation both in terms of decrease in pH as rise of reducing sugars.
An overview was made – during campaign 2006 - for all bacteria in different factories, confirming the importance of bacteria from the air and among these bacteria, the influence, which could be dominating, of Tetragenococcus halophilus.
2. Tests and trials
Beet thick juices , from the sugar factory of Tienen (Raffinerie Tirlemontoise), were stored into pilot tanks, under different conditions and analysed.
Other tests were made, in a pilot plant of evaporation, to evaluate the capacity of the bacteria to resist the operating conditions of the evaporation of the juices.
3. First conclusions
Beet thick juice from Tienen, showed a dominance of Tetragenococcus halophilus , a rise of lactic acid, a drop in pH and a rise of reducing sugars.
The first interpretations of the results led to make evolve the guide of the procedures of storage which is used in RT factories.
Beside the good storage practices – brix, temperature and pH of beet thick juice – it seems that the quality of the air which could be in contact with the juice should be controlled.
#939 SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AUTOMATED CERTIFICATE OF ANALYSIS SYSTEM
Michael Burchell, American Sugar Refining/C&H Sugar, Crockett CA, USA
In the fall of 2004, American Sugar Refining, Inc (ASR) began an investigation to determine the requirements for implementation of a standardized Certificate of Analysis (COA) system across the various ASR refineries (Baltimore, MD; Yonkers, NY; Arabi, LA; South Bay, FL), as well as multiple transfer stations, and numerous third-party warehouses. In less than twelve months, the team at ASR developed and implemented an automated COA system at four refining / production facilities using the Quality Management (QM) module within SAP. Rollouts to the remaining facilities were completed by mid 2007 and implementation at the more recent acquisitions (C&H Sugar Company, Inc., Crockett, CA; American Sweeteners Corp.; Redpath Sugar, Toronto, Canada) is ongoing. ASR facilities using the automated COA system consistently reap the rewards and benefits of the system which continues to operate successfully with limited support requirements. The various stages of the project from initial assembly of the design team, development of a standard operation scheme applicable to each facility, selection of the system platform through final implementation and ongoing support are reviewed and discussed.
#940 A COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF CARBONATATION AND PHOSPHATATION
Ahmed Vawda, Savola Sugar Middle East, Cairo, Egypt
Carbonatation and Phosphatation have been in use for many decades and each process has its adherents. In the last decade, changes in the raw sugar quality specification, cost of energy and environmental constraints has changed the refining landscape.
This paper examines the selection of the most appropriate process on the basis of:
#941 DIRECT PROCESSING OF CARBONATED MELT - ECONOMICS AND BENEFITS
Martin Hermann, Putsch GmbH & Co. Hagen, Germany
This presentation starts with an overview of the underlying described system and the results reached. These results and practical experiences form the basis for the evaluation of the economics and benefits for the implementation of the Putsch® direct processing system. The direct processing of carbonated melt is the combination of an improved carbonation principle utilizing Richter Tubes for the efficient as well as homogenous gas distribution connected with the direct filtration of carbonated melt performed by modern Membrane Press Filter technology eliminating the costly 1st filtration step for sluicing. This innovative process will result in significant lower cost for equipment and manpower and offers numerous savings in terms of energy, water and steam consumption. The evaluation covers different scenarios as for building a new refinery or retrofitting existing ones.
#942 SYMPOSIUM - A: EXHAUSTION OF REFINERY MOLASSES - WHAT DOES THE PURITY OF MOLASSES SIGNIFY AND HOW LOW SHOULD IT BE?
Chairman: Dr P.W. Rein
The symposium will focus on the loss of sugar in refinery molasses and operations leading to achieving the lowest molasses purity. Speakers will focus on the discrepancy between apparent and true purities, and the difficulty in attaining a low purity, particularly in relation to target purities. This is made more difficult with VHP and higher quality raws, and the effect of the pol of the raws on both the difficulty of exhausting molasses and the quantity of molasses produced will be highlighted. Best techniques for optimizing operations in the recovery house will be highlighted, as well as equipment for the duty. Attempts to exhaust refinery molasses in a raw mill and the effect on exhaustibility will be covered.
#942 SYMPOSIUM - B: LIQUID EFFLUENT IN A SUGAR REFINERY - HOW TO MINIMIZE AND TREAT IT
Chairman: Ahmed Vawda
Environmental issues are occupying more time and resources than ever before. This symposium is focussed on identifying the best ways of reducing liquid effluents and the most environmentally and cost effective way of treating the balance. Use of new technology in the quest for zero effluent is discussed together with conventional recycling of water inside the plant. Lastly, a review is conducted on conventional waste water treatment technologies that have proven successful over few decades.
#943 SÜDZUCKER AG, MANNHEIM/OCHSENFURT, FACTORY ZEITZ
Philipp Schlüter, Südzucker AG, Zeitz, Germany
The Zeitz factory, which was erected in 1993 in the very same place where the original facility was built in 1858, is one of the big sugar production plants built in the new German federal states after unification. During sugarbeet season, 12,400 metric tons of sugarbeet are processed per day. Consequently, Zeitz is one of the leading factories of Südzucker.
During the beet campaign lasting from the middle of September to the end of December, the factory operates 24/7. Approximately 2,000 metric tons of sugar are produced every day. More than half of the concentrated sugarbeet juice, which is an intermediate product, is stored in tanks and then, in the period from February to July, processed to sugar together with the syrup from the plant’s sister factory in Brottewitz. Thus, it is possible to utilize the facilities to their full capacity nearly all year round. The factory’s annual production amounts to more than 200,000 metric tons of sugar which is enough to cover the average demand of 6 million consumers for one year. The concentrated sugarbeet juice tanks have a storage capacity for intermediate products of 188,000 m³ and by the end of a beet campaign they are almost completely filled up
#944 STORAGE AND PRODUCTION OF VHP AND VLC SUGARS
Michael Saska and Vadim Kochergin, Audubon Sugar Institute, St. Gabriel LA, USA
Most information on color change in storage of sugar is related to refined sugar stored in silos and bins without contact with ambient air or raw sugar stored in warehouses. Little published information is available on storage of very low color (VLC) and very high pol (VHP) sugars. In standard raw sugars, color has been reported to double in six to ten months of storage. If the same holds for VLC / VHP sugars, such a rise in color may have significant repercussions for the various techno-economic scenarios.
Results of experimental study on storage of raw and VLC / VHP sugars at two Louisiana mills with different production schemes are reported. Quality of stored sugar has been evaluated by periodically taking composite samples from several sampling points around the pile at three different levels - top crust, immediately under the crust and from the bulk of sugar about 30-40 cm inside the pile. Changes in properties of stored sugar were monitored using the following parameters: pol, moisture, ash, fructose, glucose, dextran, color at pH =7 and pH=8.5. Relative humidity and temperature sensors have been placed inside and outside of the pile, respectively. Equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) of refined, VLC / VHP and raw sugars was determined at 0, 20 and 40 ̊C. Isotherms of the type ERH = a*(1-e-b*M) were found adequate to correlate ERH with the sugar moisture, M.
Accelerated sugar storage deterioration laboratory tests (1 to 2 weeks at 70 ̊C) have been carried out to measure the deterioration of VLC / VHP sugar at various moisture levels. The procedure has also been applied to evaluate the storability of sugars obtained by various production techniques. Particular focus have been on the production schemes for production of VLC / VHP sugar that do not require substantial capital expenditures on the part of the raw sugar mills, such as increased washing, bleaching or pH conditioning of the sugars directly in the centrifugals.
#945 THE UPS AND DOWNS OF ENERGY SAVINGS AT REDPATH SUGARS
George Carter, Redpath Sugars, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Continuously reducing energy consumption has takes a high priority at Redpath Sugars and over the past four years energy consumption has been reduced through capital investment and operational changes. This presentation highlights not only the key changes in equipment and process operation that have been made and the corresponding energy improvements, but also some of the challenges that have been experienced as a result.
Key topics include, how energy consumption is monitored and benchmarked, the use of high temperature evaporators, ion exchange installation, maximizing process densities and the challenges this presents, generation and use of vapour for process heating, crystallization pan yields, plant throughput control, online process energy monitoring, turbine optimization and the opportunities for the future.
#946 MODERN CONCEPTS FOR SUGAR DRYING AND COOLING
Hartmut Hafemann and Burkhard Bartels, BMA, Braunschweig, Germany
Drying and cooling as the last and final step of refined sugar production is of utmost importance. Modern concepts for drying and cooling of refined sugar are aimed to produce a final product which releases its remaining moisture in a reasonable period of time without caking. In general, the temperature at which sugar is loaded into bulk transportation means has been found to be a major factor of quality and stability. Certain moisture contents are acceptable if the loading temperature is adjusted properly. Modern equipment and technology are described to achieve the proper condition of final sugar at a minimum use of investment, space and power. Sugar drying normally takes place in rotary units. The development of those from conventional to state-of-the-art design is described. Cooling itself can either be done in the rear part of a combined rotary dryer/cooler with or without cooling air conditioning. Or, where intensive cooling is required, a separate fluidized bed cooler is attached downstream of the rotary dryer. Such cooler can also have cooling air conditioning in addition to contact cooling with integrated cooling surfaces. Finally, an outlook is given to the latest development in this field which is a vertical design of a fluidized bed sugar conditioner.
#947 SCREENING SOLUTIONS TO FACE THE DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
Frank Spanknebel, Rotex, Europe, Wavre, Belgium
Evolution of sugar demand in Europe:
In the last years, we all could see an evolution of the sugar market, especially in Europe. European sugar plants are changing in order to face the new sugar concurrence. Many European sugar plants are revamping their screening / mixing / packaging facilities in order to offer special sugar specialties, at higher capacities and higher quality level.
New Needs / New Demands
After reviewing quickly the screening principles and existing solutions, we look at new needs and new solutions. New demands are tightly linked with higher feed rates, new product specifications; tighter specifications; higher efficiency requirements; finer sugar fractions; the need to reduce downtime and the need to raise equipment reliability.
This means new needs for :
Future evolution
The needs of the sugar industry will keep changing, asking for more performance, reliability, efficiency, easy production adaptation, a.s.o…. (Atex, fine screening, different screening media).
#948 LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN LIQUOR DECOLORIZATION USING ION EXCHANGE AND CHROMATOGRAPHY
Bernd-Christoph Schulze and Oliver Tschatzsch, ESCON GmbH, Berlin, Germany and Dennis Costesso, Amalgamated Research Inc, Twin Falls ID, USA
Sugar refining is about decolorizing raw sugar in order to obtain a white product of the desired quality. Ion exchange Decolorization is a state of the art technology to remove a significant portion of the color from liquors.
Patented shallow bed technology in combination with fractal liquid distributors allows for designing high performance ion exchange systems operated with higher relative throughputs (bed volumes per hour) and consequently minimized relative process sizes. Very sharp liquid separation interfaces are achieved by plug flow in the resin columns. Altogether this results in smaller equipment sizes, decreased energy and utility demands (steam, electricity, water) and higher flexibility to varying raw sugar qualities.
A consequent further development is the introduction of a simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatographic raw sugar separation system. Using the above mentioned shallow bed technology in an 8-cell SMB-separator setup results in 90% decolorization of the filtered raw liquor with very low ash contents, high purities and no turbidity.
SMB chromatography uses no chemicals and is a waste free process, producing a liquid product which can be directly sold to the customer. This technology allows for a refinery expansion without increasing the capital intensive process steps of the conventional system, particularly on the pan floor - crystallization and centrifugation with the connected steel structures and buildings. Raffinate, the decolorized liquid flow out of the chromatographic separator can be evaporated and added to the molasses since it has identical properties and value. While new to this application, SMB chromatography is proven technology having been used for a number of large scale separation tasks for over 30 years, such as desugarization of sugar beet molasses or glucose - fructose separation.
SMB raw sugar chromatography complies with the increased demands today’s refineries are facing concerning energy consumption, environmental requirements and product quality.
#949 THE POWER OF ONE - INTEGRATING THE BUSINESS AND CONTROL SYSTEMS OF DISPARATE REFINERIES
Ben Bernard, American Sugar Refining, Chalmette LA, USA, and John Thorburn, Florida Crystals Corporation, South Bay FL, USA
American Sugar Refining has been growing recently through acquisitions. This growth, coupled with our aging first generation digital automation systems, creates opportunities for the collaborative design of a new enterprise control system network. Promoting commonality allows us to multiply our effectiveness in the development, deployment and support of this new platform.
Each refinery has provided their own vision for how to automate and control their processes and staffed accordingly. These choices included which OEM to use for both software and hardware. While there are exceptions, the protocols and programming techniques have also varied greatly between locations.
Collaboration with the Information Technology group has not been mission critical in the past. However, integration allows us to leverage portions of the existing hardware infrastructure, technical experience, and overall support structure of the Information Technology group. Control resources, once dedicated to support local network infrastructure, are now relieved from this responsibility. They now focus their talents on process control visualization and design where there is greater value. We have moved to a “collective knowledge” model where collaboration and information sharing is encouraged. Unique skill sets are distributed among team members with each individual becoming an expert in at least one field. The creation of more “Specialists” and fewer “Generalists” across the group eliminates redundant activities in the area of training, research, and implementation.
The overall objective is the creation of an Enterprise Management System. Our goal is an adaptive business model of the process where key metric indicators are available and some of the variable costs of manufacturing can be controlled in real time.
#950 THE MICROWAVE PREMIUM-PACKAGE FOR DETERMINATION OF BRIX AND DENSITY
Ulrich Klute, Berthold Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, Bad Wildbad, Germany
Microwave Technology is widely recognized as the newest and most reliable method for measuring the Brix content or Density of all types of juices, massecuite, and milk of lime associated with the Sugar Industry.
This paper describes a new Premium Power Package microwave system that enables highly accurate and repeatable performance when measuring in large pipelines e.g. thick juices and run-off syrup.
Other advantages of the premium package include a simplistic set up procedure enabled by the compact design that incorporates the HF-generator, DSP technology and HF-amplifier-chain built into one unit. The microwave system is developed and manufactured to meet ISO 9001 standards and features all required international frequency approval certifications. The advantages are further pointed out and representative examples of applications with experiences in the field are detailed.
#951 ZERO DISCHARGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR ALCOHOL PRODUCTION PLANTS
Chi Chou, Dr. Chou Technologies, NY, USA, Wen-Hong Gao, South China Univ. Of Tech., China, and Hua-Ming Huang, Guangdong Zhounneng Alcohol Co., China
The sugarcane molasses and /or juice-fed distillery produces wastewater effluent, commonly called Spent Wash (SW), which carries very high loading of both biological and chemical oxygen demand (BOD and COD) and other impurities causing environmental problems. The SW needs to be disposed in compliance with the governmental regulatory discharge standards. The conventional methods of SW disposal are by composting and /or mixing with other factory waste for agricultural use. Most R&D work has been in the area of BOD and COD removal by aerobic and/or anaerobic digestion without energy recovery and, by bio-methanation and catalytic thermolysis with some degree of energy saving.
In late 1990’s, Zhonneng Alcohol plant successfully developed a process to achieve zero emission of SW by evaporation of SW to 65 brix followed by combustion of concentrated SW to produce steam and electricity for use in the plants. The “SW concentration and combustion” plant was built adjacent to the alcohol factory and put into operation in August 2001 and successfully attains the goal of “zero” discharge of SW and up-to-standard emission of smoke and flue gas. The plant has passed the comprehensive inspection of the county and municipal Environmental Protection Authorities and granted a science and technology progress award from the local government.
This paper describes the details of various parameters based on the past seven years of plant operational experience.
#952 SUGAR: BOOMING BUSINESS!
Ake Harmanny, StuvEx nv, Kontich, Belgium
The presentation includes a real life demonstration of a sugar dust explosion. Based on the explosion characteristics of sugar dust the typical explosion hazards of sugar dust will be presented, which are very different from e.g. grain dust. Some explosion accidents will be discussed and guidance is included how typical sugar process equipment can be protected.
#953 COOLING THE SUGAR: AN IMPORTANT STEP TO ENSURE OPTIMAL STORAGE AND PACKAGING CONDITIONS
J-M Riechling, Bulkflow European Office, Philippeville, Belgium
This poster reviews the different parameters which must be controlled in order to have optimal sugar storage conditions: Size, moisture and temperature of the sugar , as well as the type of silo to be used. The principle of this innovative sugar cooling technology is the combination of indirect heat exchange with the mass flow principle of bulk solids. Thermal designs for this indirect, plate type, bulk solids exchanger are performed using an advanced, proprietary thermal modelling software, known as SOLEX. In order to minimize the energy consumption, various layouts and designs are offered to find and optimal fit for the application. Various examples will be presented.
#954 COLOR MEASUREMENT - ARE ALL METHODS EQUAL?
Marianne McKee, Ronnie Triche, Mary An Godshall, and Charley Richard, Sugar Processing Research Institute Inc., New Orleans LA, USA
At Sugar Processing Research Institute, Inc. (SPRI), we have noted that raw sugar color is being measured using any of several different methods. Using these different methods to measure color can have a wide ranging effect on the determined value of the raw sugar. We studied the effect of two different methods on raw sugar color by measuring the color according to the International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis (ICUMSA) method and the raw sugar contract (No. 14) of the New York Board of Trade method (often called the Domino Contract method or sometimes the modified ICUMSA method). The color ratio for the Domino contract color to ICUMSA color ranged from 1.17 to 2.23 with an average of 1.95. The lower color raw sugars showed the greatest differences in determined color value using these two methods.
#955 EXTENDED OVERVIEW OF MICROWAVE DENSITY APPLICATION IN THE NEW BOGAZLIYAN SUGAR FACTORY
Karl Heinz Theisen, Irma Geyer and Marcel Razafindrabe, pro/M/tec Theisen GmbH
Bogazliyan Sugar Factory is a newly built beet sugar factory in Turkey. It is designed to process 10,000 tonnes beet per day. The owner is the Kayseri Sugar Factory. The Consortium of Fives Cail, Maguin and the Turkish OEP completed building the factory in November 2006. The plant is supplied with the latest technologies and equipment. For example the factory is fully automated using the Siemens DCS. For the regulation of the density concentration and Brix, pro/M/tec's microwave equipment was chosen.
The Bogazliyan Sugar Factory could profit from the experience pro/M/tec has developed over many years in microwave technology. With the latest developments in sensor technology pro/M/tec is able to measure the density or the dry substance contents in liquids with high accuracy in pipes and pans. All of the pro/M/tec's measuring devices are mounted in the factory: insertion sensors and the new flat sensors designed by pro/M/tec. The insertion sensors in both the long or short version can be satisfactorily installed in a sugar factory. The two types of insertion sensors are the rinsed for the continuous and non-rinsed for the batch pans.
#956 SUCROSE CRYSTALLIZATION - IMPURITY EFFECTS ON COLOUR ADSORPTION
A. Ferreira1, P. M. Martins, F. Rocha, Universidade do Porto, Portugal; N. Faria, BIOTEMPO, Portugal; S. Polanco, P. Rein, Audubon Sugar Institute, St. Gabriel LA, USA
Crystallization rates are affected by many variables such as temperature, agitation velocity, supersaturation, size and shape of crystals, impurity nature and concentration. The effect of impurities in the crystallization processes has been widely studied. According to their physical and chemical characteristics, impurities can have a stronger or weaker impact on the growth rates. Some impurities act on the properties of the solutions while others can also affect the mechanism of growth at the crystal surface.
In the present work the effects of starch, D-fructose and dextran on sucrose crystallization were investigated. For that purpose, a pilot vacuum pan at the Audubon Sugar Institute was used. The impurity effects on colour formation during the crystallization process and on colour adsorption into crystals were also studied.
According to the experimental results, the crystal growth rates decrease as the impurity concentration increases. Starch seems to have a greater influence on the growth rates.
Starch and dextran increase the colour formation during the crystallization process. The results also show that D-fructose decreases both colour formation during the crystallization and colour adsorption onto the crystals. On the contrary, dextran seems to increase colour adsorption at the crystal surface and colour inclusion into the crystal lattice.