Sugar Sweeteners and Starch
“Vertical Batch and Continuous Filtration Sugar Centrifuges and the Heavy Duty Horizontal Batch Basket Filtration Peeler Centrifuges are specifically designed for this industry. It is rare to find one type of machine operating without one of the other.”
There are a number of key stages in producing sugar crystals from Sugar Beet and Sugar Cane. In the main the process is the same for both forms.
Sugar Cane or Sugar Beet is harvested from the growing fields and transported to the processing mills/factories. On arrival it is cut in to small pieces in preparation for juice extraction. Extracted juice is clarified by the removal of suspended solids such as mud, waxes or fibres. From here the juice enters evaporators that concentrate the juice into thick syrup.
This syrup is further concentrated under vacuum in a vacuum boiling pan until it becomes supersaturated, finely ground sugar crystals suspended in alcohol are introduced into the vacuum pan as seed crystals around which sucrose is deposited and these crystals then grow in size until they are ready to be discharged into a receiver tank.
A number of boiling schemes are possible but the most commonly used boiling scheme is the three-pan-boiling scheme. This method boils the sugar liquors in three stages, called ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’.
Vertical Batch Basket Filtration type sugar centrifuges separate the ‘A’ sugar crystals from the mother liquor. These centrifuges have a capacity for processing upto 2,400 kgs/cycle and capable of approx 25 cycles/hr. The final white sugar from these centrifuges is dried and cooled then stored in a silo or directly packed into bags for shipment.
The mother liquor from the first crystallisation step is once more crystallised in vacuum pans and then passed as ‘B’ massecuite (French for “boiled mass”) through Vertical Continuous Filtration type sugar centrifuges.
The mother-liquor is again crystallised in vacuum pans. Due to the low purity the evaporation-crystallisation alone is not sufficient to exhaust the molasses, and so the massecuite is passed through cooling crystallisers until a temperature of approx. 45 °C (113 °F) is reached. Then the massecuite is re-heated in order to reduce its viscosity and then purged in the ‘C’ stream centrifuges.
Typical Centrifuge Performance
The Vertical Batch Filtration Centrifuge designs can offer the following key features;
- High capacity throughputs upto 60 T/hr
- Up to 2,300 kg’s massecuite per basket loading
- Up to 26 cycles/hr
- High crystal yields
- High purity final sugar
- Negligible crystal breakage
The Vertical Continuous Centrifuge designs can offer the following key features;
- High capacity continuous throughput upto 48 T/hr
- Low purity separation rise
- High purity molasses
- Efficient product washing facility
- Efficient washing and steam massecuite conditioning
Sugar type centrifuges are extremely versatile as they have to accommodate numerous process streams found within the sugar processing industry. We can help you to Select, Commission, and Optimise these critical process performance separators. We also specialise in providing centrifuge operators with the Training needed to ensure your centrifuges are operating at their optimum at all times.