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Sugar Plant Energy Conservation
Sugar Plant Energy Conservation
Sugar Plant Energy Conservation
SUGAR MANUFACTURING
Submitted by
G.V. Raman
S. Ramesh
A. Muralee
SEPTEMBER 2011
Synopsis 1
Introduction 1
Conclusion 23
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Engineers and Consultants (P) Ltd
Synopsis
Energy conservation will contribute to the better management of steam, power, fuel and
water management in the Sugar Industry. Sugar Industries use steam at low pressure for
sugar processing. Some of the Sugar plants still use medium pressure steam for sugar
processing. Process steam utilization is exceeding 50% on Cane for sugar manufacture in
some of the sugar plants in India and there are possibilities of reducing the process steam
consumption to a level less than 35% steam on cane. The power utilized for the process
exceeds 32kW per ton of cane crushed in some of the sugar plants in India whereas it is
possible to reduce the power consumption to about 24kW per ton of cane crushed. Most of
the sugar plants in India are operating high pressure co-generation power plants to increase
their profitability and viability, which makes it necessary for these plants to optimize/reduce
the process steam and power consumption. Energy needs are increasing day by day in India
and this ever increasing demand can be meted out by means of energy saving as much as
possible. “Energy Saved is energy generated”. This paper presents the measures adopted in
the Indian Sugar Industries for reducing Auxiliary power consumption by effectively using
variable frequency drives for different applications. This paper also brings out the steam
consumption reduction possibility in the process area of the sugar industries. The steam and
power reduction measures that could be adopted in the sugar plants are factory specific and it
is necessary to have a detailed study of the sugar factory and come up with the possible steam
and power reduction areas for adoption. This paper also presents the possibilities of water
conservation in the sugar industry.
1.0 Introduction: Today the Sugar Industry is viewed as Energy Industry as all the
products and bye products are potential sources of energy. Sugar cane is a rich
source of energy and the energy ratio for input to output is very high for sugarcane
than for any other agricultural crop. Sugarcane, being a renewable crop gives a lot of
renewable energy resulting in reduction of green house effect. Energy conservation in
the sugar industry will contribute to steam, power, fuel and water management.
Presently, lot of heat and energy are used during processing in heating and cooling,
evaporating and concentrating the juices and intermediate sugar products. Some
factories use medium pressure steam for sulphur burning, pan washing, sugar drying,
melting and molasses heating and centrifugal station. Many sugar factories use a
large quantity of power per ton of cane for sugar processing. The economic viability
of a sugar factory increases with the installation of high pressure co-generation plant
and export of surplus electric power to the grid thereby bringing an additional source
of revenue to the sugar plant. There is a need for the sugar factories to reduce their
steam and power consumption in order that the revenues by export of surplus power is
increased, thereby the sugar factory will be competitive in the market for the sugar
production. It is a well known fact that sugar cane contains about 70% of water and
still many sugar factories draw huge quantity of fresh water for processing. Such
sugar factories are saddled with large quantity of effluent. It is possible to effectively
utilize the water in a sugar factory. The following paragraphs highlight the latest
changes in machinery and equipment in the sugar industry that has led to saving of
power and steam required in sugar manufacture.
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2.0 Sugar Plant Electrical Energy Conservation
In Sugar Mills, Reduction in Specific Power consumption increases Power Revenue.
Electrical energy consumption can be reduced by installing Energy Efficient
Equipment, correct sizing of the equipment or reducing loss in the energy
transmission.
Some of the Energy Efficient Equipment suitable for Energy Efficiency in Sugar
Mills are discussed here.
2.1 Cane Diffuser
In general juice extraction in a sugar factory is carried out either utilizing Diffusion
technology or milling technology. The milling technology is more prevalent in India
compared to the Diffusion technology even though, of late, there are some plants
adopting diffuser system. The major electrical energy consumption section in sugar
mill is Juice Extraction Plant. In the standard 2500 TCD milling plant, the power
consumption is 1705 kWH whereas in 2500 TCD Diffuser plant power consumption
in 1200 kWH. The reduction in power consumption is 505 kWH.
• Increase in extraction
• Reduction of re-shelling of rollers
• Sanitation improvement (higher temperature maintained in diffuser reduces sugar
loss due to bio chemical inversion)
• Increase in available bagasse on cane since vacuum filters are not used for filter
mud separation
• Reduction of oil and grease in effluent
• Reduction of electrical power consumption.
• Avoidance of a building for the juice extraction system
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View of Diffuserr Plant
• Cane Carrier,
C
• Feeder table,
• Raw Juuice/Diffuser Juice Pum mping,
• Sulfur burner
b Air-CCompressorrs,
• Muddy Juice and Filtrate
F Pum
mps
• Clear Juuice Pumps,
• ID,FD anda SA Fanns of the boiiler
• Feed water and Feeed water traansfer pump
ps,
• A Centrrifugal drives,
• Sulfur melt
m pumpinng to the Suulfur burnerrs,
• Hot andd cold air bllowers,
• Dust caatcher bloweers,
• Vacuum m Filter drumm drive,
• Injectioon water pummps etc.
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• Feeder table,
• Cane Carrier,
• Mill
• Milk of lime stirrers,
• Crystallizers drives,
• Molasses and magma pumps,
• Pug-mills and Magma Mixers, etc.
Harvested cane from the field is being fed to the cane carrier by EOT cranes and
feeder tables. Grab type un-loaders, which were used for feeding the cane to the
feeder table/carrier from the vehicles, lead to frequent kick loads. Nowadays
hydraulic grabs and sling system are being used in the sugar factories for unloading
the cane on to the feeder table/ carrier. Hydraulic tipplers have been introduced in the
northern part of India for cane unloading on to the carrier which is giving trouble free
operation. The hydraulic tippler reduces the power requirement of the cane unloading
area. At present, the rotating table type hydraulic tipper is being used in sugar
factories which help unloading to be faster compared to conventional hydraulic tipper,
where the positioning of the vehicle and unloading takes time.
Feeder tables are used to store the cane and feed it on to the cane carrier continuously
and uniformly. These feeder tables were driven by constant speed induction motor
coupled with Eddy current coupling and conventional gear boxes with open gearing,
to vary the feeding surface speed, till recently. Nowadays Variable Frequency Drives
in combination with shaft mounted planetary gear system is used for energy
conservation. This system reduces the power consumption. Typically for a 6000 TCD
plant using 7m x 8m feeder table, the installed power reduces from 22kW to 15kW for
the feeder table drive.
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Feeder Table Drive Arrangement
Cane carriers in most of the sugar factories in India are driven by squirrel cage
induction motors with eddy current coupling for speed variation, with conventional
gearbox and open gears for speed reduction.
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2.8 Cane preparation
Many sugar plants in India are using kicker, leveler/chopper, cutter and
Fibrizer/shredder for cane preparation prior to milling. The average power
consumption with this system works out to about 65 kW to 70 kW per ton of fibre.
Presently, we have tried the installation of a single cane preparatory system in the
form of inline Shredder which consumes less power compared to the other system.
The inline shredder which is located right on the cane carrier has a carding drum and a
feed drum located prior to the Shredder as a single unit. This system does not require
knives for the cane preparation. The carding drum and the feed drum level the cane
and feed it to the shredder and this system consumes only about 55kW to 60kW per
ton of fibre thereby there is power saving in the preparatory system. This system also
gives long fibres without fine preparation.
Various type of mills are used in the sugar plants in India as per the various designs
adopted by the manufacturers, like vertical head stack, inclined head stack, auto
setting, self setting mills etc. Normally conventional mills are having three rollers
with feed, top and discharge rollers along with an under feed roller. The conventional
mills are having trash plate to convey the bagasse from first compression to second
compression in the mills. Usually the static trash plate consumes about 15% to 20%
of the mill drive power. During the traveling of bagasse a lot of extracted juice in the
compressions zone will be reabsorbed by bagasse due to improper drainage in the
mills.
Top
Feed Discharge
Juice drainage
Trash Plate
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Presently, in India, the two roller mill system is becoming more acceptable in the
sugar factories. These mills are not like our olden days crusher the typical
arrangement of two roller mill is as shown below.
TOP
Feed
Bottom Re-absorption
Juice drainage Limiting Device
In earlier days mills were driven by steam engines (14% thermal efficiency), later by
steam turbine drives (35% thermal efficiency) drives, which are very low efficiency
drives. Nowadays these drives are gradually getting replaced by energy efficient (90%
and above) DC Drives/ACVFD Motors along with planetary gear boxes. ACVFD
motors are most suitable for mill drives because of their own advantages.
For steam turbines power transmission system for mills, three stage gearing systems
were used i.e., high speed reduction gearbox, slow speed reduction gearbox and
bigger size open gearing arrangements. Total gearing efficiency in this system was
around 80.0% only. After introduction of electrical drives the first stage high speed
gearbox is completely eliminated and two stage speed reduction efficiency of 82.0%
was achieved. At present planetary gearbox eliminates slow speed gearbox and open
gearing arrangement and its efficiency is around 95%.
For a 3500 TCD plant, the milling tandem having four numbers of two roller mills
with the installed power of 430 kW ACVFD motor with foot mounted planetary (four
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stage) gearbox is sufficient, whereas the same capacity sugar plant having three roller
mills of 36” x 78” size with conventional gearing system will require 600kW motor.
In the two roller mill trash plate is eliminated and there will not be any hydraulic load
on mill roller journals. Hence the power consumption in the milling will get reduced
thereby saving energy in mill plant.
The figure below shows the two roller milling tandem with driving arrangement of
ACVFD motor, foot mounted planetary gearbox with flexible rope coupling operating
in a 3500 TCD sugar plant.
The inter rake carrier in the milling tandem are driven by constant speed motor, speed
variation is effected through eddy current coupling and power transmission is by
single stage worm gearbox and open gearing. In India, this system is getting replaced
by ACVFD motor and planetary gearbox for power saving.
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Foot Mounted Planetary Gearbox Shaft Mounted Planetary Gearbox
With ACVFD Motor for Inter with ACVFD Motor for Short
Rake Carrier Distance Inter Rake Carrier
2.11 Crystallizers:
Massecuite dropped from the pans are stored and cooled in the crystallizer. Open type
horizontal air cooled crystallizers were used for high grade massecuite and open type
horizontal water cooled crystallizers were used for low grade massecuite in the past.
At present for the lower grade massecuite single mono vertical crystallizer is being
used which will save lot of energy and maintenance cost.
Very low efficient worm and worm wheel type gears for crystallizer drive are
gradually getting replaced with high efficiency planetary gearbox, which saves nearly
50% of power consumed in this area. Also in the centrifugal area pug mill and magma
mixer drives are getting replaced with planetary gears. By this replacement 50%
electrical power will be saved in this area.
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2.12 Centrifugals:
For “A” Massecuite curing batch centrifugals are used which are being driven by
regenerative type ACVFD motors for power saving to reduce the power consumption
form 3.0 kW per cycle (conventional three speed motor) to 1.08 kW per cycle.
In sugar mills, by replacing the weighing scale for juice and imbibition water with
online meters, power spent on pumping can be conserved. In the juice clarification
area juice flow measurement is carried out through mass flow meter replacing the
conventional mechanical tipper weighing scale. This totally eliminates the mechanical
weighing system and weighed raw juice pumps are dispensed with thereby, saving
energy in the sugar plant operation.
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Mass Flow Meter for juice measurement
Specific Power consumption in the injection Pumps is about 1.89 kW per ton cane.
By installing energy efficient condensers, Specific Power consumption in injection
Pump station can be reduced to 1.20 kW per ton cane. By installing Energy Efficient
cooling system power consumption can be reduced by 33%.
2.15 Condensers:
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2.16 Energy efficient Pumps and Motors
In Sugar Mills, there are about 150 centrifugal pumps and 250 motors. By installing
energy efficient motors and pumps, installed power consumption can be reduced.
In sugar mills, it is a usual practice to provide higher capacity margin to cope up with
the fluctuation in the crushing rate and higher rating motor to avoid tripping. By
proper sizing of the equipment and installing less number of higher capacity machines
instead of more number of small capacity machines, installed HP and power
consumption can be reduced.
The sugar industry has many processes and systems that use steam (live, medium
pressure and exhaust). Some of the systems that have been using the live steam have
been replaced with exhaust steam and the average process steam consumption is
getting reduced from 50% steam on cane to about 35% steam on cane in the modern
sugar factories in India. Power-Steam ratio can be increased if the quality of steam
going to condensing mode is increased by decreasing the Processing Steam. If
processing steam % cane is reduced by adopting the thermal energy conserving
measures to 35% steam on cane from 50%, specific power generation and power
export to the grid can be increased. Sugar plants which have installed high pressure
co-generation system will gain very much by the reduction of process steam by way
of additional revenue earning due to increased power export.
Juice heating by the tubular heater is gradually being replaced by Direct Contact
Heaters and Wide Gap Plate Type Heat Exchangers. Because of this juice can be
heated by later effect evaporator’s vapour to reduce the steam consumption in the
process. The approach temperature for the new generation heaters is very low (10C).
De-scaling of juice heaters is completely eliminated in the Direct Contact Heaters. In
the plate type heat exchanger automated cleaning systems are introduced and de-
scaling down time is reduced considerably.
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Direct Contact Juice Heater DCH Installed for
Sulphited Juice & Clear Juice Heating
In earlier days in India, single vapor cell with quad and Double Effect Vapor Cell
with quad were used in the boiling house which are getting replaced by quintuple
effect evaporation with a common single condenser. Because the boiling house gets
the steam supply from TG extraction, the steam pressure available for the first effect
will be steadily maintained around 1.5 Kg/cm2 and 1300C. This eliminates the
thermal shocks in the evaporation system. The first effect Roberts bodies are being
slowly replaced by Semi Kestner and Falling Film Evaporators which are providing
lower ∆T in the evaporation. Even fourth body vapours can be utilized for pan
boiling.
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The above figure shows the FFE evaporator set installed in the 3500 TCD sugar plant
in Tamil Nadu, India where fourth body vapor is used for entire pan boiling. The
steam% cane of this factory is 31%.
Vacuum pans are important equipment used in the manufacture of sugar. The
concentrated syrup from the evaporator at around 60-65 Brix is further concentrated
in these pans. This is a critical process for the production of good quality sugar and
involves the removal of water and deposition of sugar molecules on the nuclei.
Massecuite boiling is conventionally carried out by batch process in the Indian sugar
industry. These pans are characterized by:
• Loss of fluidity of massecuite, particularly towards the end of the batch cycle.
• Higher boiling point elevation resulting in lower heat flux for a given steam
condition.
• Very high steam consumption due to the non-uniform times of the loading,
unloading and pan washing cycles.
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reduced, by about 2%. Total automation of pan boiling controls results in consistency,
uniformity & efficiency.
Pans evaporation rate varies between 17kg per Sq.Mt to 85 kg per Sq.Mt. A Footing
Pan, 32 kg per Sq.Mt and 72 kg per Sq.Mt in A Massecuite Boiling Pan, 10.7 kg per
Sq.Mt to 45 kg per Sq.Mt in B Massecuite Boiling and 1.6 kg per Sq.Mt to 36 kg per
Sq.Mt in C Boiling. Care is to be taken to minimize the fluctuation in Pan Vapour
demand to achieve maximum steam economy.
During Massecuite dropping, it is a usual practice to let off the heating vapour and
this causes loss of thermal energy. In order to minimize this loss, the other pans
heating vapour valves are opened a little more. But in the Diffuser Plant, that vapour
can be let into the diffuser to heat the circulating juice by which diffuser juice heating
vapour can be reduced and steam % cane be reduced indirectly.
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3.8 Recirculation of molasses and sugar
In order to manufacture the best quality sugar and reduce sugar loss in Final Molasses
Multi Crystallization is being followed. Sugar recirculation index varies between 3.5
to 3.9, Solid recirculation index varies between 3.2 to 3.6 and Non Sugar
Recirculation index varies between 4.0 to 6.0 Recirculation of Sugar and molasses are
to be optimized to reduce Steam % Cane.
In a 2500 TCD plant, about two tonnes of steam per day is consumed in Pan washing.
Two decades back 7 ata steam were being used for Pan Washing. At present Exhaust
steam is used for pan washing. Co-generation sugar mills can use Quint-I Vapour
instead of Exhaust Steam for Pan Washings to reduce Steam % Cane.
About one ton 3 ata steam and 3 tons hot water are being used per hour in the
continuous melter in a 2500 TCD plant. Quint-I Vapour can be used in the melter
after suitably modifying the Continuous Melter to reduce water to be evaporated and
3 ata steam consumption.
Frequent mill stoppages increases steam % cane. During the stoppage the
temperature of juices, storage tank syrup and molasses, Massecuite in the Pans, heat
exchangers, other vessels etc., comes down. During the restarting extra heat energy is
required to heat the cooled mass. This increases the Average Steam % Cane. So
stoppages should be as minimum as possible to conserve thermal energy. In the
milling Plant, wear and tear due to erosion and corrosion is more because of high
pressure squeezing and low juice pH. The percentage crushing stoppage due to mills
is about 2%.
Generally immediate after cleaning, steam % on Cane is less and bagasse saving is
more. As cleaning days approaches, steam, % on cane increases and bagasse saving
gets reduced. In order to achieve consistent steam % cane two sets of evaporator or
spare III, IV and V body can be installed. Moreover as the cleaning days approaches,
exhaust steam pressure increases which decreases the specific power generation also.
Similarly Periodical cleaning of the Juice heaters at the regular interval reduces steam
% Cane.
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3.13 Thermal Insulation
All the heat exchangers, pipes, vessels, receiving tanks, storage tanks etc., are to be
lagged with appropriate thickness lagging material. There will be loss of heat by
radiation and convection if the piping system tanks and vessels are not insulated
properly, thereby increasing the steam percent Cane. If the lagging gets wetted, the
insulation capacity of the lagging material gets reduced. So the chance of thermal
insulation getting wetted should be as minimum as possible.
Vapour condensate circulation system and the utilization of flash vapour conserve
electrical and thermal energy. Providing U column for condensate withdrawal and
transfer of juice from one body to other body arrests the escape of the Vapour.
Leakage in the steam and vapour pope lines and flange joints leakage increases the
Steam % on Cane. By-passing the Steam traps and excess venting of Ammonia gases
increase the loss of Steam and vapour.
The conventional 444 clarifier is slowly getting replaced by Short Retention Time
(SRT) Juice Clarifier. Normally juice retention in this SRT type of clarifier is 45 min
as against 180 min in the conventional clarifier. SRT Clarifier eliminates the
reduction of clear juice temperature at the outlet of the clarifier due to short retention
time thereby saving in thermal energy in juice heating.
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SRT Juice Clarifier
Filtrate juice from the Vacuum Filter/ Decanter is treated in the filtrate juice
clarification system (either by flotation or sedimentation process), so that the clarified
juice can be directly taken into the evaporator for further processing, which eliminates
around 12% juice re-circulation in the clarification process.
• Defecation Process
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factories are switching over to defecation process for raw sugar production followed
by melt clarification and modified refining process with R1 & R2 massecuite boiling,
to produce lustrous, sulphurless white sugar of less than 50 ICUMCA. Apart from
that they are having the refinery columns for refined sugar production. By refinery
process, sugar colour value comes down to 20 to 30 ICUMCA.
4.4 Muddy Juice Filtration:
Muddy juice is currently being de-sweetened using rotary vacuum drum filters in
most of the sugar factories in India. Vacuum filters work on the basis of vacuum
filtration and in case of vacuum problem, the efficiency gets affected. In addition,
higher sugar losses through filter cakes are experienced in vacuum filters. An
alternative system for de-sweetening the muddy juice by using solid bowl decanters
has been established with encouraging results. The decanters eliminate the bagacillo
requirement and reduces pol loss in the mud.
It is well known that sugar cane contains water to the extent of 70% to 72% of its
weight. This water comes to the sugar factory along with sugar cane but still many
factories draw huge quantity of fresh water to meet their process and cooling water
requirements. Hence these factories are saddled with large quantity of effluent. The
term ‘fresh water’ is used to describe the water inputs to the factory that is drawn
from river, local catchments and bore-wells. The factory prefers to use fresh water
because of its low solids content and low temp.
The term ‘effluent’ is used to describe the factory liquid effluent discharged to surface
water. Its quantity and quality depends on the sugar manufacturing technology and the
cooling system deployed by the factory. A sugar factory requires process water as
well as cooling water. The water content of the cane is adequate for the manufacture
of cane sugar. By recycling and its reuse, the consumption of fresh water for the
various cooling circuits can be minimized. Adoption of water conservation measures
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would further minimize the generation of effluent. A stand alone sugar mill after
meeting its in house process and cooling water requirement should generate surplus
water.
Depleting water resources and restriction on use of ground water in most parts of the
country for industrial use, has motivated technologists to develop less water intensive
systems for sugar complexes and adopt ways and means to utilize the surplus water
from the sugar mill, for meeting the makeup water requirement. Incidentally the
sugar mill effluent has low levels of COD and BOD contamination and hence can be
recycled after suitable treatment.
6.0 Sugar Cane Water circuit
It is estimated that each tonn of fresh, clean cane entering the sugar mill would
comprise of about 710 kgs. of water, 145kgs. of dissolved solids (sucrose, reducing
sugars, impurities etc) and 145 kgs. of insoluble matter (fiber, dirt etc). Part of the
water in cane is lost in the solid and liquid waste material leaving the premises of the
sugar mill i.e. as moisture in bagasse, as vapours to the condensers, as moisture in
filter cake, as moisture in lime grit and as moisture in final molasses. There would be
variations in the quantity of water through the cane water circuit depending on the
cane quality and the processing technology deployed. An estimate of the cane water
circuit for the sugar mill with a rated capacity of 160 TCH is furnished below:
3.6 through vents and evaporation loss @ 4.4% cane t/hr 7.0
3.7 Total water out in waste material @ 48% cane t/hr 76.8
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The surplus condensate of about 36.8 tonnes per hour will be at a higher temperature
and at a COD content of about 300 PPM and dissolved solid content of 100 PPM.
This water can be cooled and treated further for reuse in the factory.
7.0 Conclusion
By product Power project improves the profitability of the Sugar Industry. Energy
Efficient Equipment improves the profitability of the Sugar Mills. Specific Electrical
Energy consumption can be reduced by incorporating various Energy Efficient
Equipments like Diffuser, VFD, Energy Efficient Transmission gears, pumps and
motors, etc. and thereby power export to the grid can be increased. Reduction in
process steam consumption will indirectly increase the surplus power export to grid.
Energy Efficient Equipment increases the profitability of the sugar mills due to the
increased revenue earned from the power projects. In near future, Sugar Mills
without high pressure Co-Generation and energy efficiency will not be viable.
Reduced water usage in a factory will also reduce the pollution from the sugar plants.
The profitability of the sugar factory will improve with the adoption of energy and
water conservation measures.
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