Modern Extraction Technology

LIST OF CONTENTS

Page No.

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 2

2. High Sucrose Extraction Technology......................................................................2

3. Conclusion.............................................................................................................. 8

4. Appendix 1 ………………………………………………………………………………..9

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 Modern Extraction Technology

1.0 INTRODUCTION

World benchmarking of the costs of production of sugar manufacture and the fact that markets
are being opened to the global players means that every sugar factory owner and shareholder
will be compelled to invest in modern technology to maintain their market edge. After
introducing the modern technology, the competitive advantage will be achieved by increasing
the plant productivity and reducing operating and maintenance costs. Although major financial
gains can be recovered in the agricultural sector by improving varieties and irrigation methods,
the controllable efficiency parameter is clearly the factory overall recovery. To illustrate what
is achievable some factory results are included. For fairly high throughputs (375 – 400 TCH)
with relatively low imbibition rates and with reasonable purities of the mixed juices (averaging
86-87%), the benchmarked boiling house pol recovery could be around 87% and the pol
extraction about 96%, giving a potential pol overall recovery of 83.5%. These achievable
performance figures are only realistic if a modern approach to sucrose recovery is adopted.
With this approach, Fletcher Smith Ltd have developed a range of products with proven
technology that will assist the Industry to tend towards achieving these benchmarks. Other
factors such as factory by-product utilization also form part of the equation such as animal
feed and fibre-board plants. Although these technologies are available, these require high
capital costs whereas co-generation of excess electrical power to the regional or national grid,
must be seriously considered to enhance the plant productivity as these services are already
integral with any sugar factory. It will be seen that the technology that Fletcher Smith offers is
well suited for achieving a high sugar production as well as supplementary income from other
revenues.

2.0 High Sucrose Extraction Technology : This technology relates specifically to cane diffusion as
opposed to the conventional milling tandem. This equipment requires high levels of cane
preparation achieved through a combination of knifing and heavy duty shredding. The
Preparation Index of at least 91% is a prerequisite for high efficiency extraction, regardless
whether the extraction process is conventional milling or the more modern method of
bagasse/cane diffusion. Also, higher levels of imbibition water, precise control of operating
parameters and efficient milling or de-watering are also key to the success of the technology
implementation. It is important that the factory is correctly balanced to accept any changes to
the equipment, and it is highly recommended that the equipment designers/suppliers are
involved with the correct sizing and factory balance checks at the beginning of the project
launch.

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A summary of the typical performances is presented in Table 1.

DESCRIPTION MILLING TANDEM DIFFUSER TANDEM

Cane Purity 84.43 84.43
Pol Extraction 95.44% 96.25%
Mixed Juice Purity 85.58 85.11
Boiling House Recovery 90.6% 90.99%
Overall Recovery 86.47% 87.58%
Assumed Annual Crush 1,000,000 1,000,000
Sugar Made @ 99% pol (tonnes) 117,914 119,427
Additional Sugar Made (tonnes) nil 1,513
Additional Revenue per year @ US 7c/lb 0 US$ 233,000
Bagasse Pol 1.77% 1.54%
Bagasse Moisture 53.21% 50.0%
Additional Electrical Power Available for export nil 2,600 kW

TABLE 1 : Typical Performance Comparison

The extraction prediction for the milling option assumes that heavy duty shredding is
performed, similar to the diffuser requirement. It also assumes that large, 45” x 90” mills with
heavy duty 4th rollers are used and that they are all equipped with tall Donnelly chutes, level
controls and that the mill rollers are roughened. A typical specific hydraulic pressure of
approx. 2,400 tonnes/m2 should be specified as minimum. The diffuser option has a higher
boiling house recovery due to the fact that filter cake losses are zero, since all the muds are
recycled back into the diffuser. The additional revenue earned by using the diffuser
technology is significant even though the low world price of sugar at US $ 0.07/lb has been
used for illustrative purposes. If local sugar pricing is used then clearly this additional revenue
would be much higher. The additional power that is made available is derived from the fact
that the power from 3 mills becomes available for export, since the diffuser and its various
pumps absorbs the equivalent of 1 mill and the two dewatering mills make up the remaining 2;
making the total within the milling tandem to six.

2.1 Cane Preparation : The objective here is to achieve 91% PI as minimum without affecting
the cane throughput. The equipment used can be either the vertically fed shredder using
billeted or pre-knifed cane as the input material or the force-fed horizontal in-line shredder
which can handle whole stick or chopped cane. The vertically fed shredder is usually fed
with knifed cane from a rubber conveyor belt. This situation allows a suspension magnet
to be placed over the belt to remove any tramp iron embedded in the cane, thereby safe-
guarding the shredder from mechanical damage and unnecessary wear. For energy
considerations the cane preparation line is ignored as it is assumed that both processes
demand the same equipment and thus have the same power requirements.

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 Modern Extraction Technology

Shredded cane of 91% Preparation Index Modern, heavy duty shredder

2.2 Cane Diffusion : Cane diffusion is generally accepted as being more cost effective than
bagasse diffusion, however the cane payment system would generally dictate which
system could be implemented. Bagasse diffusion clearly has the disadvantage of
including a further mill ahead of the diffuser compared with only two dewatering devices
required for cane diffusion. There would of course be the consequent increase in high
pressure steam consumption. Depending upon the quality of cane entering the diffuser
and assuming that the imbibition applied to the bed is in the region of 350% on fibre, the
extraction efficiency that is achievable could be as high as 96.8%, however this high
dilution would reduce the juice brix entering the process house and a larger evaporator
capacity would be required than a diffuser designed for imbibition of say 250% on fibre.

2.3 Energy Requirements : One of the biggest advantages of the diffuser plant installation is
the lower power consumption demanded by it, compared with an equivalent milling
tandem for the same extraction performance. Typically, for a 375 TCH factory, the diffuser
plant would require 2,280 kW of electrical power versus 4,900 kW for the equivalent
installed power for a six mill tandem. In the diffuser option, the largest power consumers
are the pumps : 475 kW of absorbed power, and then the lifting screws at 88 kW. The
difference in power (2,620 kW) is immediately available for export or irrigation purposes in
the case of the diffuser plant.

2.4 Diffuser Heating: It should be mentioned however that the diffuser requires low grade
steam heating to raise the temperature of the cane to operating levels (generally vapour 2
bleed for scalding juice) and to maintain the bed temperature within the vessel (known as
direct injection steam). Also, since there are higher thermal losses associated with the hot
diffuser and higher temperatures of the discharging bagasse the overall steam
consumption is slightly higher for the diffuser plant, but only by about 3%. Vapour 2 at
approx 105 deg C could be used for Scalding Juice heating while Vapour 1 at about 115
deg C would be used for direct injection (if required). The diffuser typically uses a total of

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between 9.5 – 10 tonnes of heating steam per 100 tonne cane. There is another
advantage of the diffuser installation however: Since the diffuser has raised the juice
temperature to at least 65 deg C, there is less heating required in the process house, and
an opportunity can be taken to do intermediate liming before clarification. The scalding
juice heaters should not therefore be regarded as additional equipment since this heating
would normally be done by the primary juice heaters in a milling tandem.

2.5 Clarifier Mud Recirculation : Provided that the factory does not receive ‘added-value’ for
filter cake residue, Fletcher Smith recommend that all of the clarifier muds be returned to
the diffuser for desweetening, which eliminates the need for an entire mud filter handling
and bagacillo station. This arrangement enables the clarifier, juice heaters and possibly
even a pre-evaporator to be positioned close to the diffuser to minimize the piping and
heat losses. The diffuser has inherent good filterability characteristics, and as such the
suspended solids content of diffuser juice is generally low (0.15 – 0.2%). This feature can
be exploited to wash the clarifier muds and remove most of the pol, without adversely
affecting the percolation of juice through the cane bed. The filter cake losses for the
process house are thus reduced to zero, with minimal effect on the sucrose loss in
bagasse. For this reason higher sucrose recoveries are achieved from a diffusion tandem
compared with the equivalent milling factory. Boiler design should take the higher levels
of ash in the bagasse into consideration, by specifying single pass main banks or
shrouded leading edge tubes within the multi-pass banks. Also, to measure the pol
balance across the diffuser accurately, a scale or mass flowmeter needs to be installed in
the mud return line with integrator function.

2.6 Operating and Maintenance costs : Since the number of moving parts in the diffuser is
significantly less than those found in an equivalent milling tandem, the maintenance costs
for the diffuser tandem is far less than that found in the mills – as depicted in Table 2.
Companies operating both diffuser and milling tandems have confirmed that the diffuser
maintenance costs are approximately half those of the actual milling maintenance costs.
The figures presented below are indicative only to represent the relative differences
between the two technologies. For details of these figures refer to Appendix 1.

DESCRIPTION MILLING TANDEM DIFFUSER TANDEM

USc/tonne cane USc/tonne cane
Maintenance materials 22.07 13.07
Oils and lubricants 0.092 0.042
Chemicals 0.125 0.0
Consumables 0.359 0.170
TOTAL 23.231 13.278
TABLE 2 : Typical Operational costs of mills versus diffusers

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2.7 Maintenance : The largest maintenance items for the diffuser plant are the chains, the
recirculation pumps and the two dewatering mills, whereas the milling tandem typically has
an incremental increased maintenance costs to cover the additional four mills. For the
mills, the main roller bearings, reshelling and journal repair costs as well as scrapers and
trashplates appear as the highest values.

2.8 Operating Personnel : Also, although rather sensitive, the fact that the diffuser plant can
be highly automated means less manpower per unit production, but of a higher
competence level and generally results in improved plant availability results. The following
organisation is provided to compare the staffing levels required as minimum for operating
both types of plant :

Staffing Requirements for Milling Tandem (typical):

Operational Personnel :
1 x Production Manager
1 x Assistant Manager
1 x Maintenance foreman
3 x Shift Supervisor
3 x Mill Operators
3 x Panel operators
3 x Maintenance workers
3 x Lubricator hands
3 x Screen cleaners and pump operators
3 x Mill roll arcers
3 x Cleaners

Staffing Requirements for Diffuser(typical) :

Operational Personnel:
1 x Production Manager
1 x Assistant Manager
1 x Maintenance foreman
3 x Shift Supervisor
3 x Diffuser Operators (roving)
3 x Panel operators
1 x Maintenance worker (can do some lubrication & can be shared)
1 x Mill roll arcer
3 x Cleaners

As can be seen, although this is not given high profile, the number of shift operating staff
can be reduced by approximately 10 persons, without affecting the reliability of the plant.

2.9 Energy Efficiency: To keep the overall steam consumption figures to a minimum,
Fletcher Smith would recommend that most of the prime movers are driven either utilizing
variable speed electrical motors or hydraulic motors. Both are very energy efficient,
however the application of each type will depend on the individual needs at the factory.

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There are minimal losses associated with electrical power distribution when compared
with steam distribution. The diffuser is specified as lagged, as well as all vapour and juice
pipes as well as heaters. If the factory would like to maximise the energy efficiency, then
Fletcher Smith have additional equipment like direct contact heaters for press water and
diffuser juice pre-scalding stage that lowers the juice temperature before pumping to the
factory. One area that has not been explored that could provide significant bagasse
surplus conditions is the feature of bagasse drying/cooling. Diffused bagasse leaves the
dewatering station at a reasonably high temperature, typically 70 - 72 degrees C. Also,
the moisture content of the bagasse is typically 50% and has a lower Calorific value of
7,436 kJ/kg. By reducing the temperature of this bagasse to say 35 deg C through a
drier/cooler, the quantity of moisture that would be driven off would be 2.5 t/hr and the
outlet bagasse moisture would reduce to 47.9%. By reducing the moisture content the
lower Calorific value of bagasse increases to 7,867 kJ/kg – an improvement of 5.8% of
increased energy.

2.10 Steam Generation : The diffuser option offers more flexibility with regards to co-
generation opportunities or power export for irrigation etc. The bagasse fired boilers are
clearly the heart of any factory and the single pass, pin-holed grate, double drummed
boiler of minimum 32 bar pressure rating be considered as preferred design for the plant.
High efficiency, condensing turbo-generators with pass-out feature combination of the
reaction blade designed rotors should be seriously considered, provided that the steam
contamination is kept to a minimum and is well controlled. The combustion chamber
within the boiler design must allow for suspension firing with metered bagasse feeders
supplying the controlled energy input. The fibres from the diffuser plant are very fine and
are generally of short length. The additional ash/sand from the clarifier muds will not have
any detrimental effects on the boiler performance, provided that the ash content of the
incoming cane is not excessive. Diffuser bagasse does not combust efficiently in ‘self-fed’
boilers for example; the Eisner or older Dutch-oven type of boiler.

2.11 Process House : The clarifier station with its special design of flash tank should be of
the trayless or short retention type to keep sucrose losses to a minimum. Here, FS
provide the short-retention clarifier sized with typical retention time of 40 minutes.
Provided that adequate juice heating, liming, pH control and flow control is achieved, the
clarifier produces juice of high clarity and minimal suspended solids carry-over. This
design eliminates any need for further juice screening. As stated earlier the muds would
be returned to the diffuser after accurate mass flow measurement eliminating all of the
mud handling equipment.

2.11.1 Evaporation : Since vapour bleeding would be maximized in the thermally

efficient factory, use of Kestner type evaporators is recommended for the first
two effects. If the client prefers higher heat transfer coefficients, then the
falling film evaporators may be offered particularly for the evaporator tail but
these are less forgiving with the usual process disturbances. Standard

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Roberts vessels for the end of the tail are very forgiving although the falling
film evaporators are especially efficient in this application and these are
recommended for the quintriple effect station.

2.11.2 Crystallization Station : Significant steam savings can be realized using

continuous vacuum pans (CVP) versus the batch pan designs. The batch
pans generally use first vapour or even exhaust steam for their heating
medium whereas the FS CVP can boil various massecuites using steam
sources that are sub-atmospheric (Second vapour or below). The massecuite
exhaustions can be maximized by including the vertical crystallizer design with
specially designed massecuite reheater. Again here, final molasses purity
figures of 32 have been achieved consistently in some factories. These
figures can only be achieved if the coefficient of variation (CV) of the crystal
size, particularly in the C-massecuite can be maintained at a low value. This
will provide high efficiency separation at the centrifugal station.

2.11.3 Colour formation: There have been reports that specifically with drought
stressed cane and cane with high levels of tops and leaves, that the diffuser
generates higher levels of colour in the juice than what would have resulted
from a milling tandem. Although there is some truth in this argument, there
are numerous schemes available to combat this negative impact eg leaf
removal systems and sugar re-melt boiling schemes, to name a few.

3.0 CONCLUSION : Although only a very brief overview, this document is intended as a
exploratory discussion on modern extraction technology for the sugar cane industry. Fletcher
Smith Ltd has realized the market need for improvement in both recovery efficiencies as well
as the importance of reducing overall steam consumption figures, and they have tailored their
products to suit these requirements. Should any further information be required, Fletcher
Smith highly recommend that a factory survey be commissioned to cover all aspects of
material balances, steam balances or any other specific requirements to provide an overall
factory plan, whether phased- or greenfield projects. The document has shown that there are
significant advantages with pursuing the diffusion route, whether it be capital cost,
maintenance and operational issuers or the opportunities that diffusion will provide for the
export of excess power.

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Latest cane diffuser technology Diffuser frame during construction

Suspension magnet to remove tramp iron

over variable speed rubber belt

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APPENDIX 1 : COST COMPARISON

Capital Inventory : Differences of Equipment required.

To evaluate the differences in the equipment required for each extraction process fairly, the
dewatering mills are assumed to be identical to the mills that would appear in the milling
tandem. Therefore, after rationalising the mill numbers the milling tandem would be
associated with 4 mills and the diffuser none.

Civils costs : Mills of 11m centres will require minimum of 80m of millhouse with overhead
gantry of similar length – usually two cranes. Mill foundations of at least 65m long.

Additional equipment associated with Milling tandem:

1 x Millhouse and gantry extension for 35m

1 x Gantry crane
4 x 4-roller mills complete with heavy duty 4th rollers
4 x Donnelly chutes (stainless steel)
4 x sets of tail bars and coupling boxes
4 x sets mill hydraulic accumulators, oil pump and gauge panel with valves
1 x mill lubrication system (centralised or individual)
1 x bearing cooling water system for mills and turbines
4 x turbine drives, speed control system, lubrication system
4 x high speed reducers with couplings, lubrication system and baseplates
4 x low speed reducers with couplings, bearings, baseplates and gear covers
3 x Intercarriers with gear reducers, motors, couplings, chain and slats
1 x Imbibition distributor
3 x Maceration distributor (stainless steel)
4 x juice trays with gutters (stainless steel)
1 x unscreened juice collection tank (stainless steel)
3 x maceration tanks (stainless steel)
2 x unscreened juice pumps with motors, couplings and baseplates, valves
3 x maceration pumps with motors, couplings and baseplates, valves
1 x rotary screen (or two banks of DSM static screens) with drive and juice collection tray
1 x screened juice collection tank
2 x screened juice pumps with motors, couplings and baseplates, valves
1 x Control room with control system

Additional Equipment due to Filter Station :

1 x Bagacillo collection system, fans and ducting, cyclones, rotary valve

1 x Mud mixer
4 x Mud Vacuum filters with mud discharge conveyors
1 x Mud storage bin with pneumatic discharging door
1 x Vacuum system for mud filter
1 x Filtrate receiver, vacuum breaker, pump and piping system

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Diffuser Costing:

1 x In-feed carrier complete with drive, couplings and baseplate, chain and slats
1 x 9m wide cane diffuser complete with variable speed drive, chain, slats,
18 x lifting screws complete with motors, reducers and couplings
1 x dewatering drum and bearings (no drive required)
1 x kicker with motor, shaft mounted reducer and bearings
16x pumps with motors, pulleys and baseplates, valves (one stand-by draft juice pump)
1 x sump pump
2 x scalding juice heaters complete with valves and fittings (could be located at juice heater
station) – (This cost can be off-set against primary juice heater costs)
1 x discharge conveyor belt
1 x Control room with control system
1 x Clarifier mud mass measurement system

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Maintenance Costs :
(Replacement parts, repairs,
consumables but not labour) Relative APPROX
No. Cost USc/
Per Tandem : (say 1,2m tonnes) Off each TOTAL tonne

Mill Hydraulic seals 15 2000 30000 0.313

Accumulator spares and fittings 2 15000 30000 0.313
Wear plates – top roller 6 5000 30000 0.313
Top roller, top half bearings
(new) 4 35000 140000 1.458
Top roller, top half bearings
(repairs) 2 12000 24000 0.250
Top roller bottom half bearings
(new) 2 10000 20000 0.208
Top roller bottom half bearings
(repairs) 1 4000 4000 0.042
Feed roller bearings (new) 2 45000 90000 0.938
Feed roller bearings (repairs) 4 10000 40000 0.417
Discharge roller bearings (new) 4 45000 180000 1.875
Discharge roller bearings
(repairs) 6 10000 60000 0.625
4th roller bearings 2 8000 16000 0.167
Top roller reshells, machining &
transport 2 55000 110000 1.146
Side roller reshells, machining &
transport 3 40000 120000 1.250
Journal repairs 8 12000 96000 1.000
Mill pinions 2 36000 72000 0.750
Mill trashplate 12 9000 108000 1.125
Top roller scraper 18 7500 135000 1.406
Discharge roller scraper 12 7500 90000 0.938
Coupling Box 2 24000 48000 0.500
Tail bar 1 20000 20000 0.208
Messchaert knife gear 6 8000 48000 0.500
Lubrication equipment spares 1 11000 11000 0.115

Turbines Bearings 2 15000 30000 0.313

Couplings 1 36000 36000 0.375
Oil pump and fittings 1 12000 12000 0.125
Governor overhaul 3 15000 45000 0.469

Gearboxes Bearings 3 58000 174000 1.813

Seals 2 12000 24000 0.250
Couplings 1 25000 25000 0.260

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Filters and fittings 50 600 30000 0.313

Intercarriers Motor repairs 2 8000 16000 0.167

V-belts and pulleys (couplings) 3 5500 16500 0.172
Reducer overhaul 2 8500 17000 0.177
Chain 3 28000 84000 0.875
Slats 1 18000 18000 0.188

Pumps Motor repairs 3 8000 24000 0.250

V-belts and pulleys (couplings) 3 5500 16500 0.172
Bearings & gland packing 1 12000 12000 0.125
2 8500 17000 0.177

2119000 22.07292

Diffuser - based on 12 years @

1,2m per year Cost per year

Pumps Motor repairs 36 8000 24000 0.250

V-belts and pulleys (couplings) 36 5500 16500 0.172
Bearings & gland packing 36 12000 36000 0.375
Impellers 25 8500 17708.3 0.184

Main Drive Motor repairs 2 8000 1333.33 0.014

Main bearings 1 50000 4166.667 0.043
Gearbox overhaul 1 150000 12500 0.130

Chain Components 1 1800000 150000 1.563

Return idler bearings 50 550 2291.67 0.024
Wear strips 3 180000 45000 0.469
Steelwork 1 800000 0.05555 0.694

In-Feed Chain 6 150000 75000 0.781

Gearbox 4 25000 8333.33 0.087
Slats 1 15000 1250 0.013

Lifting
Screws Hardfacing 216 2000 36000 0.375
Gearbox 12 15000 15000 0.156
Motor repairs 12 8000 8000 0.083

Kicker Motor repairs 3 8000 2000 0.021

Gearbox 4 11500 3833.33 0.040
Bearings 2 7500 1250 0.013

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Discharge
Conveyor Belting and splices, idlers 3 45000 11250 0.117
Motor repairs 6 8000 4000 0.042
Gearbox overhaul 6 12000 6000 0.063

TOTAL 5.7092
Dewatering Mills (from previous
Section) 7.3576
TOTAL 13.0668

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