Production Technology II

A Teaching Material Prepared For 3rd Year Industrial

Chemistry Students
By:
Moges Admasie (M.Sc.)
(Lecturer In Industrial Chemistry)
2014 E.C
Unit 2: Sugar Processing Technology

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 2. Sugar Processing Technology

Outline
2.1.Introduction
2.2. Raw Materials for sugar Production
2.3. Process descriptions and major unit
operations of sugar process technology

3
 Introduction
 Sugar is a broad term applied to a large number of carbohydrates present
in many plants & characterized by a more or less sweet taste.
 Saccharum is the Latin word for sugar & the derived term saccharide is the basis
of a system of carbohydrate classification.
 Monosaccharide's : Include glucose (dextrose), fructose, galactose, xylose and
ribose.
 Monosaccharaides are the building blocks of disaccharides and
polysaccharides
 Disaccharides: such as sucrose (common sugar composed of the monomers
glucose and fructose), lactose (consisting of the monomers glucose and
galactose) and maltose ( malt sugar, formed by a dehydration reaction
between two glucose molecules.)
 Polysaccharides: are long chain of monosaccharides linked by glycosidic
bonds eg. Starch, glycogen, cellulose, and chitin
 Sugars is obtained from plants, largely sugarcane and sugar beet plants
 Sugar is a vital ingredient in most of our daily consumption, for example:
Soft drinks, juices, tea, bakery items, deserts, etc.

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 Raw Materials for sugar Production
 The main raw materials for sugar production are :

Sugarcane Sugar beet

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 Raw Materials for sugar Production
 Juices of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) and sugar beet (Beta
vulgaris) are rich in pure sucrose.
 In commercial usage, the term sugar usually refers to sucrose.
 Sucrose is a disaccharide sugar that occurs naturally in every fruit and
vegetable.
 Sugar occurs in greatest quantities in sugarcane & sugar beets from which it
is separated for commercial use.
 For now we focuses on sugar production from sugarcane
 Other materials in sugar production includes:
 Water for washing cane and for increasing extraction yield
 Lime, char and SO2 : acts as bleaching agent/decolorizer
 Calcium phosphate as flocculent
 CO2: acts as acidifying agent

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 Cane sugar

 The sugarcane is a thick, tall, perennial grass that

flourishes in tropical or subtropical regions.

 Sugar synthesized in the leaves is used as a source of

energy for growth or is sent to the stalks for storage.

 It is the sweet sap in the stalks that is the source of

sugar as we know it.
 The stem accumulates sugar to about 15% of its weight.
 Other sugar crops include sweet sorghum, sugar maple,
honey, and corn sugar.

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 Cane sugar

 The types of sugar used today are white sugar (fully

refined sugar), composed of clear, colorless or crystal
fragments; or brown sugar, which is less fully refined
& contains a greater amount of treacle residue, from which
it obtains its color.

 The sugar industry processes sugar cane and sugar

beet to manufacture edible sugar.

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
 Steps in sugar processing from Sugarcane
 The following are the general steps in sugar production:
 Planting and harvesting of sugarcane
 Transport and Handling
 Washing, Cutting of canes, Shredding/Slicing
 Milling
 Clarification
 Filtration
 Evaporation
 Crystallization
 Centrifugation/separation
 Refining
 Drying
 Storage/packing

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
 Planting and harvesting
 Planting sugarcane
 Sugarcane takes about seven months to mature in a tropical area &
about 12-22 months in a subtropical area.
 Select healthy sugar cane plants
 Split the sugar cane stems into foot-long pieces
 Dig furrows in a sunny planting spot
 Moisten the furrows
 Plant the sugarcane
 Wait for the sugarcane to grow and mature

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
 Harvesting
 At this time, fields of sugarcane are tested for sucrose, &
the most mature fields are harvested first. Harvesting can be
done in two ways:
Manual harvesting Mechanical/machine harvesting

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology

Tractor

Animals

Trucks Tractor
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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Washing, Cutting of canes, Shredding/Slicing
 Washing the sugarcane before processing i.e. removing dirty
 Cutting operation is the first operation in industry
 Cutters/cane knifes are mechanical equipment which is used to cut
the canes into desired size
 Shredder is used to remove leaves and undesired solid particles from
cane

Washer Cane knife Shredder

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Milling For Extraction of Juice
 Milling is process of crushing the sticks of sugar cane to extract the juice.
 The shredded cane is fed through a series of crushing mills to extract the sugar
rich juice.
 Consists of three roller mills connected in series: o
 Top roller
 Feed roller
 Discharge roller

 These used to extract the juice from crushing sticks.

 To make the mill process more efficient, the poor juices of the subsequent
millings are reprocessed (mashing process) and hot water is applied in the last
milling to increase the extraction.
 Bagasse is produce as a by product.

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Milling For Extraction of Juice

Bagasse

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Milling For Extraction of Juice
 Products of Milling are:

Bagasse

Juice

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Clarification
 In clarification process sludge, mud, suspended and colloidal particles are
removed by some chemical compounds.
 Raw cane juice are filled in clarifier (conical shape vessel), where phosphoric
acid/ Calcium phosphate, lime and Sulphur dioxide are mixed with the help of
agitator.
 When these chemicals are mixed, suspended and colloidal particles are collect in
flock and resulting settled down.
 Neat and clean juice comes out from the upper section of clarifier, sludge and
mud are collected in bottom and drainage to rotary filter.
Lime and SO2 : acts as bleaching agent
Calcium phosphate as flocculent
CO2: acts as acidifying agent

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
 FILTRATION
 Clarified mud from the clarifier further filtered in rotary filter.
 Mud & sludge are stick on the periphery of rotating drum by the action of
suction.
 Solid cake removes from the drum by doctor blade.

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Evaporation
 Evaporators are used in process industry to concentrate liquids.
 The operation is performed normally by use of low pressure, dry & saturated
steam.
 The evaporator consist a heat exchanger in inner section.
 In the evaporator feed interred at upper section and concentrated thick liquor
exit at bottom section.
 Multiple effect evaporator increase quality

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Crystallization
 In the field of engineering crystallization process considered as mass transfer
operation.
 Purest form of substance is obtained.
 The object of the process is usually the recovery of the solute (crystals) from the
solvent.
 Process consist 3 major events:
 Clustering
 Nucleation
 growth

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Centrifugation/Separation
 Massecuite (mixtures of crystals and mother liquor (Molasses) resulting from the
crystallization sent to centrifugation unit
 Separate sugar from molasses /mother liquor
 Centrifuge operates at 100-1800 rpm
 Molasses pass through perforations
 Sugar crystals are washed with 85°C water
 Raw sugar and molasses produced

Raw Sugar
Molasses

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Refining
 A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar into white refined sugar.
 Refining process consist of 4 step; •
1) Affination: Dissolving off some surface impurities
2) Carbonatation : Removing further impurities that precipitate from solution with calcium
carbonate
3) Char filtration : Removing further impurities with activated carbon
4) Recovery: using a vacuum process (see salt recovery).
 The liquor left over from the preparation of white sugar and the washings from the
affination stage both contain sugar which it is economic to recover.

Raw Sugar

Refined Sugar

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology

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 Process descriptions and major unit operations of
sugar process technology
Storage/packaging
 Packing is final process of sugar manufacturing process.
 Containers opaque, airtight, moisture/odor proof
 Glass canning jars or cans for liquid sugars
 Factors affecting sugar storage are:
 Temperature
 Moisture
 Quality of sugar
 Light
 Grain size and distribution par
 Compression Imperial Sugar

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 …Cont.

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 …Cont.

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 …Cont.

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 Sugar Processing block flow diagram

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