LOW STEAM % CANE

ALMOIZ INDUSTRIES ROAD TO SUCCES

Khalid Rashid
Sr. General Manager
Almoiz Industries unit -2
Pakistan

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

 Abstract

• Energy conservation for a sugar mill, both thermal and

electrical.
• Bagasse saving and power export.
• Optimization of process steam and electrical power for plant
by adopting advance technologies and modern equipment as
Modern gears, Variable frequency drives, High pressure
boilers and turbines, Falling film evaporators, process
automation, water control in massecuite boiling and
insulation of equipment and pipe line.

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

 Introduction

The Almoiz industries of Pakistan started its continuing

journey of excellence in 2006 with Almoiz unit 1 and Almoiz
unit 2 in 2014. Almoiz unit 2 is refined sugar producer having
defecation remelt phosphitation process. Cane crushing
capacity is of 9,000 t per day. High pressure boilers and
turbines of 65 bar (g), Planetary gears for mill drives, a
complete set of falling film evaporators and grid station 0f
36MW for power export is installed. Energy economy is
continuously improved and refined over the years to reduce
the steam consumption to 35% on cane.

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

 Objectives
• To reduce steam % cane up to 32-36 % on cane and
steam consumption for power at 5.9-6.1 kg/kWh.
• To achieve maximum boiler efficiencies and minimum
electrical power consumption for plant 30-33kW/ton
cane
• To achieve maximum sugar extraction with minimum
losses
• To produce quality sugar
All above goals merges at one point that is to save
maximum bagasse

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

 Five Years Steam % Cane (Almoiz II)
• In trial season, steam % cane of
Almoiz Unit 2 was very high but in
forthcoming seasons it was
reduced by making improvements
in plant.
• Steam % cane of last 05 years at
Almoiz Unit 2 is presented in
figure.
• Steam % cane depends upon many Yearly steam consumption from 2014-2019
factors;
• Regular cane crushing at optimum capacity of the plant.
• Use of vapors from each evaporator.
• Control on water consumption in massecuite boiling and process automation
• Availability of right size equipment.
• Insulation of equipment and lines.

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

Capacity Utilization
Capacity Utilization
• Steam % cane is inversely No of
Total Cane Average Loss
With With
Seasons Crushing Crushing/Day Time
Days
proportional to the rate of (T) (T) (Hrs.)
respect to respect to
Crushing Time
crushing. 2014-15 77 235,837 3,063 385.67 34.03 79.13
• Highest capacity utilization 2015-16 113 598,431 5,296 269.17 58.84 90.07
in season 2017-18 when 2016-17 128 858,146 6,704 192.92 74.49 93.72

crushing rate is maximum. 2017-18 129 1,080,405 8,375 79.92 93.06 97.42
2018-19 91 611,070 6,715 203.58 74.61 90.68
• Highest capacity utilization
was achieved by; Plant Capacity Utilization

• Sufficient supply cane

• Minimum mill stoppages
• Impact of capacity utilization
on steam % cane in Almoiz
Industries unit 2 is obvious
in presented graphs.

Capacity utilization at Almoiz Unit 2.

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

Evaporators and Vapor Bleeding Arrangements
• Evaporation in a sugar mill is the principal factor that determines its energy
efficiency.
• The way the evaporator station is configured and operated determines the amount
of steam that a factory requires.
• Almoiz industries unit 2 has a complete set of falling film evaporators (seven in total).
• All these are in an interchangeable arrangement so for evaporator cleaning no
stoppage is required.
• Existing vapour bleeding arrangement in Almoiz industries unit 2;

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

 Yearly Improvement in Vapor Bleeding
Description 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19

5th vapor 5th vapor

5th vapor 5th vapor 5th vapor Condensate Condensate
Primary Juice
3rd vapor 4th vapor Condensate
Heating Condensate Condensate
2nd vapor 3rd vapor 3rd/4th vapor
4th vapor 4th vapor
Condensate Condensate
4th vapor Condensate
Secondary Juice 3rd vapor Condensate Condensate
3rd vapor 3rd vapor
2nd vapor 3rd vapor 3rd vapor
Heating 2nd vapor 2nd vapor
1st vapor 2nd vapor 2nd vapor
1st vapor 1st vapor
1st vapor 1st vapor
1st vapor 2nd vapor 2nd vapor 2nd vapor
Clear Juice Heating. Ex Steam
Ex Steam 1st vapor 1st vapor 1st vapor
2nd vapor 2nd vapor
Raw Liquor Heating Ex Steam Ex Steam 1st vapor
1st vapor 1st vapor

1st vapor: 01 2nd vapor: 04

Refine massecuite
Refine Pan 2nd vapor: 04 Refine Refine Pan, A Conti, 2nd vapor: 04 Refine
1st and 2nd vapor,
2nd vapor: 03 Pan, A Conti, 02 A A Batch Pan, A Conti, A Batch
A-Massecuite, A, B
Refine Pan, A Conti, Batch 3rd vapor: 01 3rd vapor: 01 Refine
Pan Boiling &C Grain by 2nd
02 A Batch 3rd vapor: B Batch, Refine Pan, A Pan, A Batch, B Batch,
vapors while B / C
3rd vapor: B Batch, B Conti, C Batch, C Batch, B Batch, B B Conti, C Batch, C
Massecuite by 3rd
B Conti, C Batch, C Conti Conti, C Batch, C Conti
vapors.
Conti Conti
Steam % Cane
51.2193 42.2226 36.2725 33.9882 38.3419

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

Control on Water Consumption in Pan Boiling
• Steam % Cane ∝ Water Consumption in Pan Boiling
• If this water consumption is reduced, steam % cane will be lower.
• In manual operations of massecuite boiling a lot of water is consumed
which causes increases in the steam % cane.
• In Almoiz industries unit 2, to control water consumption, water flow
meters were installed and automation of all batch pans was done.
2016-17 2017-18 2018-19

Pans Initial Final Vol. per day Initial Final Vol. per day Initial Final Vol. per day
Value Value (m3) (m3) Value Value (m3) (m3) Value Value (m3) (m3)

R Pan No. 1 660 985 324 4.27 0 903 903 7.16 925 1585 660 7.42
R Pan No. 2 246 726 481 6.33 0 641 641 5.08 651 1222 571 6.41
R Pan No. 3 127 234 107 1.41 0 178 178 1.41 195 285 89 1.00
R Pan No. 4 0 120 120 1.58 0 102 102 0.81 109 164 56 0.63
B Conti 1023 8496 7473 98.33 10017 13286 3269 25.95 13451 16590 3139 35.27
C Conti 794 7473 6679 87.88 11744 16095 4351 34.53 16130 18839 2710 30.44
15,185 9,442 7,225
Total Water (T)

Cane Crushed 858,146 1,080,405 611,070

(T)

No. of Days 76 126 89

Water % Cane 1.7695 0.8740 1.1823

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

Automation of Process House

• In process house, main energy consumers are juice heaters, melt heaters and
pans.
• In start, there was no automation/control in process house at Almoiz unit 2.
• With in few years, control of juice heaters and batch pans switched to auto.
No. of
• This automation Description Units Automation / control Year
reduced Defecation 01 pH control 2015-16
unnecessary Primary Juice Heaters 06
Temperature control of heaters no. 5 & 6 2016-17
Temperature control of heaters no. 3 & 4 2018-19
water addition in
Temperature control of heaters no. 6 & 7 2015-16
process house Secondary Juice Heater 08 Temperature control of heaters no. 4 & 5 2016-17
operations and Temperature control of heater no. 8 2017-18
Clear Juice Heaters 03 Temperature control of heaters no. 1, 2 & 3 2017-18
ultimately Evaporators 07 Juice flow, juice circulation and juice level of all evaporators 2014-15
reduced steam or Phosphitation 01 Dosing of chemicals 2014-15

vapour Liquor heaters 02 Temperature control of heaters no. 1 & 2

A, B & C massecuite batch pans.
2017-18
2017-18
consumption. Raw Batch Pans 05
A/B & B/C graining batch pans. 2018-19
Refine massecuite batch pan no. 1, 2, 3 & 4 2015-16
Refine Batch Pans 05
Refine massecuite batch pan no. 5 2017-18
Water spray nozzles of all condensers 2014-15
Condensers 15 Water inlet valve of condensers for refine pans no. 1, 2, 3 & 4 2016-17
Water inlet valve of condensers for refine pan no. 5 2017-18
Raw Centrifuges 23 Massecuite feeding of all raw centrifuges 2018-19
Refine Centrifuges 04 Full operation of all refine batch centrifuges 2014-15

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

Selection of Right Size / Efficient Equipment

• Energy consumption ∝ size and efficiency of equipment

• If equipment is under capacity, it will not fulfil the process requirement.
• If equipment is over sized, it will consume more energy than required.
• For low temperature vapours bleeding where Δt is less, more heating surfaces
are required to get benefit.
• Equipment were added in Almoiz industries unit 2 during last few years to
reduce steam % cane.
Description No. of Equipment Added Year of Installation
Primary Juice Heaters 01 no. (400m2) 2016-17
01 no. (400m2) 2015-16
Secondary Juice Heater
01 no. (400m2) 2017-18
Clear Juice Heater 01 no. (400m2) 2016-17
Water Heater
(for Refine Centrifuges & Sugar Dryer) 01 no. (100m2) 2015-16

Juice Clarifier 01 no. (175 m3) 2017-18

Vacuum Filters 01 no. (55 m2) 2017-18
Rotary Screen 01 no. (D 1.8 m, L 3 m) 2017-18
Refine Pans 01 no. (55 m3) 2017-18

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

Insulation of Equipment And Lines

• Efficiencies of steam turbines, evaporators, juice heaters and pans

directly depends upon the steam temperature and pressure.
• Thermal insulation reduces heat loss to atmosphere and main
temperature of steam/vapor.
• As a result efficiency of equipment increases.
• Every 10°C drop lead to 0.5 – 0.6 % enthalpy loss.

Live Steam Live Steam Extra Exhaust 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Temperature Pressure Steam Consumption Saving Bagasse
Power Steam Vapor Vapor Vapor Vapor Vapor
at Inlet at Inlet Power Produced % Saved
Season Generated Season Temp Temp Temp Temp Temp Temp
of Turbine of Turbine

°C bar T/MW %  T MW
°C °C °C °C °C °C
2014-15 435 60 7.2653       2014-15 130 113 107 92 85 75
2015-16 445 60 6.7385 7.25 8391.59 1245 2015-16 130 115 110 95 88 77
18883.8
2016-17 475 62 6.0338 10.46 3130 2016-17 130 118 112 98 91 80
0
2017-18 477 62 5.9589 1.24 2207.93 371 2017-18 130 120 113 101 93 81

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

 Conclusion
 Steam% reduction in Almoiz Unit 2
 1st year 8.89% 2nd year 5.96% 3rd year 2.28%
 It was done by;
1. Maximum capacity utilization
2. Vapor bleeding up to 5th vapors
3. Process automation/control
4. Reduce water consumption in massecuite boiling
5. Addition of right sized equipment to use low temperature
vapors
6. Insulation to avoid temperature loss across pipeline and
equipment
 Target is to achieve 30% steam on cane
 Power export to national grid with saved bagasse

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com

Almoiz Industries Limited www.almoiz.com