DETAILS OF ON GOING RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
The Sugar Technologists
Association has taken up the following research projects with The Ugar Sugar
Works Ltd., one of the progressing sugar factories in India.
Prior to taking up the research projects, the Association invited
concrete R&D proposals from the Council Members as well
as the general members of the Association. All the proposals received were scrutinized and discussed by
the R&D Committee in its meeting and after indepth discussions, the
following proposals were decided to be taken up with the Ugar Sugar Works Ltd.,
at their factory.
1. Study of the Condensate
Generation in the Sugar Factory, analysis of the quality there of and
identification of treatment to be done to make the water suitable for boiler
feed or potable use – taken up with The Ugar Sugar Works Ltd.
The Committee decided to take on the above project as the
members felt that factories produce water more than that they require because of
the application of multiple effects. The
members felt that 15% of water on cane is excess as the main condensate and
about 25% extra water is available from condensate cooling system.
Because of this now the Govt. is contemplating to restrict the discharge
of water not exceeding more than 100 litre/tonne of cane.
The Committee felt that the sugar factories can not only be self
sufficient in the water, but, there is a good possibility that by giving proper
treatment, the extra water could be converted into good water for potable use
and for use in high pressure boiler.
The research on the above project is going on.
The Vasantdada Suga Institute, Pune has given a report about the analysis
and desired to have further study and this season they collected the condensate
water samples and they are testing these samples and we hope that the report
will come soon and the condensate water which goes waste will be converted into
potable water for use.
2. Drying of mill bagasse
from 50% - 40% moisture for improvement of the calorific value (C.V), -
taken up with The Ugar Sugar Works Ltd.,
The R&D Committee members
discussed the idea of developing and designing of the bagasse drier.
The members discussed the matter in detail and usefulness of the project
to the industry & approved taking up the above project with the Ugar Sugar
Works Ltd., as the members were of the opinion that the factories are crushing
sugar cane and producing bagasse with a moisture content of 50% which is
utilized as fuel and its excess is saved. The
members felt that if the moisture content of the bagasse can be reduced, its
calorific value will increase and so will the efficiency of boiler.
As per
reports available, the bagasse has been dried by exchange of heat of the flue
gases of the boiler. The design of
drying mill wet bagasse utilizing the waste heat of flue gasses was reportedly
developed in Cuba however, the design details of the equipment are not available
in India.
Taking a cue from its usefulness and its contribution to the fuel economy, The Ugar Sugar Works has already initiated the work of developing the bagasse drier on the basis of the data available and two senior experts from the STAI are assisting the Ugar Sugar Works besides experts from VSI are also working on the above project and have visited Ugar Sugars Works. The initial work on the bagasse drier has already started and the final trials on this equipment will be done in the ensuing crushing season.
FUTURE
PROJECTS
The R&D Committee of the Association is contemplating
taking up the R&D projects / applied research work on the following topics /
areas which are important to the sugar industry. The Committee has also entrusted these jobs to its different
R&D Committee members and senior members of the Association to gather
further details on these important topics so that a full fledged R&D project
can be undertaken on them :
1.
Automation in the sugar industry &
2.
Scavenging of the gases from bagasse fired boilers
3.
Clarification of syrup in raw sugar mills & treatment of
scum
This is another project approved by the R&D Committee of
the STAI. A number of sugar
factories in India are now importing raw sugar which needs to be melted and
clarified prior to crystallization to produce white sugar out of that.
For processing, these factories also adopt phosphoflotaion process for
clarification of their syrup for improving quality of sugar & in this
process lot of sugar is lost. The scum has considerable quantity of sugar in it and it
cannot be discharged as such. To
make the process foolproof, there is a need for developing a process of economic
desugarisation of the scum and finally isolation of the impurities and
discarding the same out of the process stream.
To take up the above project, the STAI is in contact with a
few chemical manufacturers / sugar factories to work out the modalities of the
above project.