Process of Sugar Production

Sugar cane has been without doubt one of the most important products for the commercial development in the Americas and Europe. The sugar is consumed throughout the world as it is a major source of calories in the diets of all countries. The sugar can be obtained mainly from sugar cane and sugar beet. For obtaining it requires a long process, since the seed germinates until the cane sugar is sold nationally and internationally. Below is the process in the factory.

The production process begins with site preparation, pre sowing of the cane. Once the plant matures between 12 and 14 months, persons charged with the task of harvesting will have to cut and collected through mechanical lift and carry it into the courtyards of the sugar cane.

The cane comes from the field is shown to determine the quality and content of sucrose, fiber, and level of impurities. Then they weigh in scales and leads to the patio where it is stored temporarily or are directly available on the tables washing cane to run a banda driver that feeds the choppers.

The choppers are placed on routes operated by drivers turbines fitted with blades that cut the stems drawer and turn them into chips, giving them a uniform size to facilitate the extraction of juice in the mills.

Cane produced by the choppers come to a tandem mills, each consisting of three or four clubs and metal pressure extracts the juice from the cane. Each mill is equipped with a high-pressure turbine. In the path of the cane for the mill will add water, usually hot, to extract the maximum sucrose containing fibrous material. This extraction process is called maceration. The bagasse coming out of the last unit is driven to a grinding bagacera to dry and then goes to the boilers as fuel, producing high-pressure steam that is used in turbines for windmills.

The diluted juice is extracted from the milling is weighed in the scales with load cells to find out the amount of juice sucrose entering the factory.

The juice obtained in the stage of milling is an acidic (pH approximately 5.2), it is treated with lime slurry, which raises the pH in order to minimize possible losses of sucrose. The lime also helps to precipitate inorganic or organic impurities that come in the juice and to increase or accelerate its coagulating power, raised the temperature of the lime juice through a tube heaters. Juice clarification by sedimentation, non-sugar solids are precipitated as sludge called cachaça and juice is clear at the top of the tank. This juice is sent over before being discharged into the field for the improvement of soils poor in organic matter.

Here one begins to evaporate water from the juice. The juice is clear that almost half of the composition raw juice extracted (with the exception of the impurities removed in the cachaça) is received in the cooling unit with a percentage of soluble solids between 10 and 12% and you get a syrup with a meladura soluble solids concentration of approximately 55 to 60%.

This process occurs in multiple evaporators, vacuum consisting of a boiling solution of cells arranged in series. The juice comes in the first preevaporador and heat until boiling. Boil start to generate steam which is used to heat the juice in the following effects, thereby achieving the lowest boiling point in each evaporator. In the evaporation process is obtained or syrup meladura. The meladura is purified in a clarifier. The operation is similar to the previous filter to clarify the juice.

The crystallization takes place in the Tacho, who are recipients of a single vacuum effect. The resulting material containing liquid (honey) and crystals (sugar) is called mass cooked. The work of crystallisation is carried out using the three-brews to achieve the highest concentration of sucrose.

Mass passes through the centrifuges, agricultural machines in which the crystals are separated from the mother liquor by centrifugal mass applied to a rotating drum containing mesh interior. The honey that comes from the centrifuge is pumped to storage tanks and then subjected to higher evaporation and crystallization in the Tacho. After three successive crystallizations obtained honey is removed from the final process and will be marketed as feedstock for the production of alcohols.

The wet sugar is transported by elevator to feed the bands and dryers are rotary lifts in which the sugar is placed in contact with the hot air that comes into countercurrent. The sugar must have low humidity, about 0.05%, to avoid lumps.

The sugar is dry with temperatures around 60 º c, is passed through the inclined rotary coolers bearing the cold air in counterflow, which lowers its temperature to about 40-45 º c to lead the pack.

PACKAGE

Sugar Cold and dry bags are packed in different weights depending on the market and presentations and is dispatched to the warehouse of finished products for onward sale and trade.

TYPES OF SUGAR

The sugar is graded according to the processes for the extraction and consumer tastes:

Raw, chewed or brown: it is produced with crystal size and retains a molasses film surrounding each crystal.

Direct target or direct special produced by processes of clarification and final production is done in one stage of clarification.

Refinement was crystallized twice in order to achieve maximum purity.