Direct production of less than 50 IU white sugar at a cane sugar plant

Abstract

With the selection of available process equipment and practicing best operating conditions, sugar of less than 50 IU can be produced at a cane mill without back-end refinery. Cane diffusers are being used which are energy efficient and produce cane juice with low suspended solids. The double sulphitation process is followed using the ejector system to obtain a better colour and turbidity removal. High efficiency, low residence time and low turbulence settling clarifier is being used for juice clarification. Syrup clarification is also used to polish the syrup further without using any colour precipitants. A 3½ stage crystallization scheme is employed. For A massecuite a seed magma of B2 sugar is used. B2 sugar is produced from B sugar as seed and syrup and dissolved B and C sugar is used. Purity of A massecuite is maintained around 90% producing a sugar of below 50 IU with 70% of the crystallizate having a size of 1200–1700 μm with low residual SO2 content.