SUGAR INDUSTRY

SUGAR - WHITE GOLD

It was once such a rare and expensive commodity,

people called it white gold. The only few source of
sweeteners were Honey and Fruits. The main source of
sugar (Sucrose) is sugarcane, followed by sugar beet
and corn. The cultivation of sugarcane for production
of sugar is said to have started in New Guinea, and
then it spread to China, India, etc.
What is sugar
Sucrose is a disaccharide that occurs
naturally in most fruits and vegetables
Chemical formula c12H22O11
Molecular weight – 342
Density = 1.58 kg/m3
India is largest producer of sugarcane in
2019
Next is Brazil
5
Generally sugar is obtained from plants,
largely sugarcane & sugar beet plant.
India is single largest producers of
traditional cane sugar, and Gur.

6
SUGAR CANE
• Belongs to family of grasses called Saccharum, 2-5 m tall, 9-15% sugar content
• Grown mainly in Tropical and Subtropical, Temperate regions of the world
• Warm, sunny, frost free weather. Needs fertile, well drained soil and at least
1500 mm rainfall annually.
• Sugarcane Harvesting
Sugarcane crop is allowed to mature for a period of 2-16 months, whereupon the
sugar content in it reaches at saturation level. Then, it’s plantations are burnt for
about 2-3 minutes to remove waxy coatings and dead leaves.
The mechanical harvester removes the cane from soil and the cleaned and
chopped cane sticks are transferred to a container truck. These are then sent to the
processing facility.

Composition of Sugar Cane :

Water 70 %
Fibrous 10 – 15 %
Sucrose 10 – 15 %
Gummy material 0.5 - 2 %
 Various by-Products from Sugarcane

Sugarcane

Gur Molasse Baggasses

s

- Used as -
Used as
-Most popular replacement of coal
cattle food
-
Used in in specialized boilers
in India Used to produced
- Its used in Ayurvedic alcohol -

industries elctricity
medicine -
Used in -
Used for producing
production of paper and ceiling
ethanol

8
SUGAR BEET
• Plantof temperate and cold climate-(Europe, Asia,
North America)
• Sugar content over 18%
• There is tremendous potential for production of
sugar beet in J&K.
• Account for 35 Million Metric tons of sugar
produced each year, 25% of global sugar
production.
• Processing different than cane sugar, but end
process is same, with slight difference in trace
minerals.
USES OF SUGAR

•Granulated sugars- sprinkled on foods, to sweeten hot

drinks, home baking to add sweetness and texture to
cooked products.

• Milled sugars (fine powder)- sugar icing.

• Brown sugars are granulated sugars with the grains

coated in molasses to produce dark sugar. They are used
in baked goods, confectionery and toffees

• Liquid sugars -beverages, ice cream and jams.

• Invert sugars and syrups- used in breads, cakes and

beverages for adjusting sweetness, aiding moisture
retention and avoiding crystallization of sugars.

• Winemaking- Fermentation
11
SUGAR PRODUCTION PROCESS
• Cleaning
• Slicing
• Juice Extraction
• Purification
• Evaporation
• Crystallization
• Refinery
• Separation And
Packaging
PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM OF SUGAR
PRODUCTION
FLOW DIAGRAM
 1. Harvesting Of Sugarcane
• Two types
– Manual
– Mechanical

17
Transport and Handling

• Animal driven carts

• Trolleys
• Trucks

18
Material Handling and Storage
2. CLEANING

• After the cane arrives at the mill yards, it is mechanically

unloaded, and excessive soil and rocks are removed.

• The cane is cleaned by flooding the carrier with warm water or

by spreading the cane on agitating conveyors that pass through
strong jets of water and combing drums.

• At this point, the cane is clean and ready to be milled.

Washing
3. GRINDING/ SLICING
• After the cleaning process, a machine led by a series of rotating knives, shreds
the cane into pieces. This is known as "grinding.“
• The cutter consists of knives on a cylindrical shaft which rotate at a
speed of 400 to 500 rpm.
• The knives cut the canes into small pieces
• During grinding, hot water is sprayed on to the sugarcane to dissolve any
remaining hard impurity. The smaller pieces of cane are then spread out on a
conveyer belt.
Shredding
•Canes are shredded here.
• It consists of two rollers
rotating in opposite direction.
4. JUICE EXTRACTION/MILLING
The shredded pieces of sugarcane travel on the conveyer belt through a series of heavy-
duty rollers, which extract juice from the pulp.
93% of juice is extracted here. Water and weak juices may be added to macerate the cane
and aid the extraction.
JUICE EXTRACTION/MILLING conti…

• Crushed canes are passed through four pressure mills

to extract juice.
• Each pressure mill is made up of cast iron rolls.
• Rolls are grooved and the width decreases from first
roll to the last.
• Make up water added in the third and fourth mill is
recycled back to the first two mills.
• About 85-90% of juice present in cane is extracted.
26
PRODUCTS OF MILLS
Bagasse

• Stored in bagasse
storage
Juice • Used as fuel to generate
steam
• Steam used for
– Generating electricity
– Evaporation of juice
before crystallization
6. FILTRATION
• The muds separate from the clear juice through sedimentation. The non-sugar
impurities are removed by continuous filtration. Screened juice is then treated
with LIME to remove suspended impurities and change pH.
• The mixture is then heated and settled in large tanks called CLARIFIERS or in
continuous settlers or thickeners.
• To recover the sugar from settled out mud, continuous ROTARY-DRUM
VACUUM FILTERS are used. The scraped-off cake acts as manure
• The final clarified juice contains about 85 percent water and has the same
composition as the raw extracted juice except for the removed impurities.
Clarification
• To remove non-sugars and impurities
– Liming
– Sulphitation
– Phosphatation
– Carbonation
7. EVAPORATION
• To concentrate this clarified juice, about two-thirds of the water is
removed through vacuum evaporation.
• Generally, four vacuum-boiling cells or bodies are arranged in series so
that each succeeding body has a higher vacuum (and therefore boils at a
lower temperature).
• The syrup leaves the last body continuously with about 65 percent solids
and 35 percent water.
8. Crystallization
Three stages of crystallization
Nucleation
Initiation
elongation
• The crystallization process takes place in vacuum pans
which boil the juice at lower temperatures under
vacuum.
• When the juice concentrates it is 'seeded' with tiny
sugar crystals which provide the nucleus for larger
crystals to form and grow.
• When the crystals reach the desired size the process is
stopped. Brix is increased from 65ᴼ to 75ᴼ by
boiling at 60ᴼC
Crystallization conti…

The mixture of crystals and mother

liquor (molasses) resulting from
the crystallization is called
MASSECUITE which is
transferred to centrifuge at low
temperature.

32
CENTRIFUGATION
• Separate sugar from molasses
• Centrifuge operates at 100-1800 rpm
• Molasses pass through perforations
• Sugar crystals are
washed with 85ᴼC water
Here raw sugar is obtained

33
REFINERY
• Raw sugar is transported to a Cane Sugar Refinery for the removal of
molasses, minerals and other non-sugars, which still contaminate the
sugar. This is known as the purification process.

• Raw sugar is mixed with a solution of sugar and water to loosen the
molasses from the outside of the raw sugar crystals, producing a thick
matter known as "magma."
35
 MELTING

• Melted at 85ᴼC in Batch or

continuous melter
• Affinated sugar dissolved
with hot condensate to
conc. of 72ᴼ brix

36
 EVAPORATION &
CRYSTALLIZATION

• Sugar syrup evaporated up to super saturation

Crystallization
• Centrifugation to obtain refined sugar crystals

37
DRYING AND PACKAGING
• Sugar tumbled through
large cylindrical dryers.
• Once the final evaporation
and drying process is done,
screens separate the
different sized sugar
crystals.
• Large and small crystals
are packaged and shipped,
labeled as white, refined,
sugar.

38
 PACKAGING
• Temperature, Moisture, Quality of sugar, Light, Grain size and distribution

• Containers are opaque, airtight, moisture/odor proof

• Glass jars or cans for liquid sugars

39