Sugar Research & Innovation

Report on a visit to the White Sugar Mill installation at Felixton Mill, South Africa
by R.J. Steindl and R. Broadfoot March 2008
QUT Job No. 3679 SRDC Project No. QUT025 ORGANISATION: Sugar Research & Innovation Queensland University of Technology GPO Box 2434 BRISBANE Qld. 4001 Principal Investigator Mr Rod Steindl QUT, Brisbane Queensland (07) 31381234 r.steindl@qut.edu.au Sugar Research and Development Corporation Queensland University of Technology

CONTACT:

FUNDING:

Sugar Research and Innovation, QUT is not a partner, joint venturer, employee or agent of SRDC and has no authority to legally bind SRDC, in any publication of substantive details or results of this Project.

FINAL REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE SUGAR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION AS PART OF GRANT QUT025

Report on a visit to the White Sugar Mill installation at Felixton Mill, South Africa
Contents Summary.......................................................................................................... iii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 1
1.1 1.2 Background.......................................................................................................... 1 Objective of the visit ........................................................................................... 2

2.

The White Sugar Mill process ................................................................ 3

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Ultrafiltration....................................................................................................... 3 Refrigeration and heat recovery .......................................................................... 4 Demineralisation.................................................................................................. 5 Decolourisation.................................................................................................... 9 Evaporation, crystallisation, fugalling and drying .............................................. 9 Colour balance and sample analysis.................................................................. 10 Product handling................................................................................................ 11 Plant specification ............................................................................................. 12 Benefits.............................................................................................................. 12 2.9.1 Sugar recovery...................................................................................... 13 2.9.2 Reduced scaling.................................................................................... 13 2.9.3 Fermentation......................................................................................... 13 2.9.4 Fertiliser................................................................................................ 13

3. 4. 5. 6.

Acknowledgements ................................................................................ 15 References............................................................................................... 15 Other publications associated with WSM ........................................... 16 Dissemination to the Australian industry ........................................... 16

List of figures Figure 2.1 Figure 2.2 Figure 2.3 Figure 2.4 The White Sugar Mill process............................................................................. 3 Pumps and membrane modules for the ultrafiltration step.................................. 4 The heat recovery screen ..................................................................................... 6 One of the multi-port distributors used in the simulated moving bed ionexchange system.................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2.5 Some of the tanks holding ion-exchange resin.................................................... 8 Figure 2.6 Device used to distribute permeate feed into a resin bed .................................... 8

ii Figure 2.7 Image of the ion-exchange distribution system showing the current status in the cycle of each resin vessel .................................................................................... 9 Figure 2.8 Snap samples of streams showing (L to R) UF feed, permeate, retentate, deashed juice, decolourised juice, the resultant white sugar and raw sugar from the normal process............................................................................................. 10 Figure 2.9 White sugar stored in 1 t bags ready for transport............................................. 12 Figure 2.10 The status quo for cane flow to the factory and filter cake recycle back to the canefields (Jensen et al., 2006).......................................................................... 14 Figure 2.11 The potential benefits in recycling both filter cake and fertiliser back to the canefields to eliminate regenerant chemical disposal (Jensen et al., 2006) ...... 15

List of tables Table 2.1 Analyses of process streams for three consecutive days (Jensen et al., 2006).. 11

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Report on a visit to the White Sugar Mill installation at Felixton Mill, South Africa

Summary
The purpose for visiting Felixton Mill while in South Africa for the ISSCT Congress was to collect performance and operating/maintenance data for the White Sugar Mill (WSM) plant. After an initial meeting with some staff of Felixton Mill, Dr Craig Jensen of Tongaat-Hulett Sugar Ltd accompanied the authors on a tour of the WSM plant installation and provided sufficient information and data to permit an assessment of the WSM technology and its implications for Australian factories. A production sized plant capable of processing 15 % of the Felixton Mill throughput (equivalent to 12.5 t brix/h) and producing 36 000 tonnes of commercial EEC2 white sugar per annum has been operating since 2005. The plant includes the following technologies: Ultrafiltration of 25 brix juice from a mixture of 1st and 2nd effect juice using ceramic and stainless steel membranes operating in parallel; Juice refrigeration using flash cooling in a staged steam ejector system; Demineralisation using a combination of strong acid cation resins and weak base anion resins; Decolourisation of juice to about 400 IU using strong base resin in the chloride form; and Evaporation, crystallisation, fugalling, drying and bagging using conventional equipment.

Two crystallisation strikes are made to produce the white sugar product. A WSM molasses suitable for fermentation to produce high value products is a by-product of the process. The plant is capable of producing white sugar of less than 45 IU to meet EEC2 white sugar standards.

Report on a visit to the White Sugar Mill installation at Felixton Mill, South Africa

1.

Introduction

Following the ISSCT congress at Durban, South Africa, Dr Ross Broadfoot and Mr Rod Steindl visited Felixton Mill on 3-4 August 2007 to inspect the White Sugar Mill (WSM) installation and to discuss technical aspects of the process with Dr Craig Jensen. Dr. Jensen, new technology group leader for Tongaat-Hulett and WSM project manager, has been involved with the development of the WSM technology since its inception in the late 1990s. 1.1 Background

Development of the WSM technology was initiated in 1998 to prepare a high quality fermentation feedstock for the production of lysine by South African Bioproducts Ltd (SABP). Initial developments focused on de-ashing of refinery WSM molasses. Subsequently, a joint development project between Tongaat-Hulett Sugar Ltd (THS) and SABP shifted focus to processing clarified juice to produce white sugar to meet EEC2 standard, together with a high quality fermentation feedstock directly in a raw sugar factory, without producing crystalline raw sugar as an intermediate product. A pilot plant was installed at Felixton Mill in 1999 to prove the WSM process. Following the success of the proof of concept phase, a larger WSM plant called the semicommercial plant was installed at Felixton Mill in 2002. This plant was capable of processing 5 % of the mill throughput. The original pilot plant was containerized and then used successfully for pilot trials in Brazil at two sugar mills in 2004. The objective of the joint venture partners was to establish the viability of the process under different conditions to those existing in South Africa. In 2005 a production sized plant capable of processing 15 % of the Felixton Mill throughput (equivalent to 12.5 t brix/h) and producing 36 000 tonnes of commercial EEC2 white sugar per annum was commissioned. The EEC2 white sugar specification includes the following quality parameters: Polarisation Colour Ash Invert >99.7 <44.5 IU <0.03 % <0.04 %

1.2

Objective of the visit To collect performance and operating/maintenance data for the White Sugar Mill (WSM) plant installed at Felixton Mill, South Africa.

2.

The White Sugar Mill process

The WSM process is illustrated in Figure 2.1. The new process steps include ultrafiltration, refrigeration of the permeate, and ion-exchange for decolourisation and demineralisation.
Clear juice Evaporator 1st effect
19 brix juice 25 brix juice

Evaporator 2nd effect

30 brix juice

Ultrafiltration

Retentate

Permeate

Evaporator Effects 3 to 5

Juice refrigeration
Chilled permeate

White sugar crystallisation Two white boilings Two recovery boilings

White sugar

Wash water Regen chemicals White juice

Ion-exchange Demineralisation & Decolourisation

Fermentation feedstock

Figure 2.1 2.1

The White Sugar Mill process

Ultrafiltration

Clear juice of about 25 brix is used as the feedstock for the WSM process. A rotating wedgewire screen (80 m openings) is used to remove suspended solids from the juice prior to the membrane filters. The ultrafiltration step (pore size 0.1 m) removes high molecular weight compounds from the juice to prevent fouling of the resin columns. The use of 25 brix juice at 90 C provides the best combination of volumetric flow rate, permeate flux and pressure drop across the membranes. It also provides close to the maximum solids flux (C. Jensen, pers. comm.; Steindl and Rackemann, 2002). Both ceramic membranes from Applexion and stainless steel membranes from Graver Technologies providing approximately equal areas of filtration surface are used in parallel. A picture of the membrane plant and the pumps is shown in Figure 2.2. Cross-flow velocities are in the range of 5-7 m/s. This is a trade-off between capital and operating costs. Dropping from 7 to 5 m/s will halve the power consumption of the plant

4 per unit area of membrane, and increase the life of the membranes but the membrane area required increases by approximately 20%. The membranes have provided about three years service. THS expects to replace the membranes after five years service.

Figure 2.2

Pumps and membrane modules for the ultrafiltration step

The retentate from the ultrafiltration step is sent to the final molasses stream from the raw sugar factory. 2.2 Refrigeration and heat recovery

The permeate is then cooled to minimise sucrose inversion losses during the demineralisation and decolourisation treatments. Refrigeration to about 10 C is being achieved by flash cooling the juice in a single stage with a head pressure of 1.2 kPa abs. This extremely low absolute pressure is achieved through a staged steam ejector system (atmospheric pressure 20 kPa abs 7 kPa abs 1.2 kPa abs). Plate heat exchangers are used to exchange the heat between the cool white juice (juice after decolourisation) and the hot permeate to improve the thermal efficiency. The permeate is cooled to 22 C before it enters the flash unit.

5 The DCS controller screen illustrating the heat recovery section of the plant is shown in Figure 2.3. 2.3 Demineralisation

Demineralisation is achieved in two simulated moving bed ion-exchange units, one containing a strong acid cation exchange resin and the other a weak base anion exchange resin. Each unit comprises a patented multi-port distribution system developed by THS which distributes the various process flows to between 24 and 36 stationary resin vessels. Generally a three pass system is used with cation exchange followed by anion exchange, the juice flow crossing backwards and forwards between the cation unit and the anion unit. The cation resin can be regenerated with either hydrochloric or nitric acid at 7-9 % concentration and the anion resin is regenerated with ammonia at 4 % concentration. Nitric acid and ammonia are favoured because of the attractiveness of the spent regenerant chemicals as a fertiliser supplement. There is concern of increased soil salinity through the return of spent wash where hydrochloric acid is used. Because of the high ash content of cane juice and hence ash removal rate in the resin, there is a high chemical demand for regeneration of the resins. The use of nitric acid and ammonia as the regenerant chemicals produces an effluent from the ion exchange regeneration that is rich in nitrogen, potassium and organic compounds. This effluent is concentrated by evaporation to provide a high quality liquid fertiliser. Apart from removing inorganic ionic species, the two demineralisation resins also remove at least 80 % of the colour in the juice by a combination of ion-exchange and adsorption. The plant used to demineralise the juice is shown in Figure 2.4, Figure 2.5, Figure 2.6, and Figure 2.7. A life of three years is expected from the demineralisation resins.

Figure 2.3

The heat recovery screen

Figure 2.4

One of the multi-port distributors used in the simulated moving bed ionexchange system

Figure 2.5

Some of the tanks holding ion-exchange resin

Figure 2.6

Device used to distribute permeate feed into a resin bed

Figure 2.7

Image of the ion-exchange distribution system showing the current status in the cycle of each resin vessel

2.4

Decolourisation

Decolourisation of the deashed juice to about 400 IU colour is achieved in an ion-exchange unit similar to those used for demineralisation. The resin used is a strong base resin in the chloride form as commonly used in other fixed bed ion-exchange decolourisation plants in the sugar industry. The pH of the juice exiting the ion-exchange unit is about 8.8. The resin is regenerated with a caustic brine solution. THS expects to replace the decolourising resins after two years. They expect that the cold operating conditions will assist to extend the life of the resins. 2.5 Evaporation, crystallisation, fugalling and drying

The juice after decolourisation is at 15 brix and is evaporated to 70 brix in a 3 stage evaporation plant comprising falling film evaporators. The first evaporator is supplied with vapour 2 from the raw plant. A single batch pan of 50 m3 capacity (unstirred, mild steel construction) is used for the two white strikes and two recovery strikes. Each strike is slurry grained, run up and dropped. The target size for the white sugar product is 500 m. The mother molasses is of low viscosity and strong circulation movement is obtained. There have been no problems with

10 settling of the crystals in the pan despite the pan being unstirred and the mother molasses having low viscosity. If the decolourised juice has colour less than 500 IU then the sugar from the two white strikes becomes the product white sugar which satisfies the EEC2 grade. A single batch fugal of 1.2 t charge is used to separate the white sugar crystal. A lot of steam is injected into the fugal to assist the purging. Currently the WSM molasses from the final recovery boiling is sent to the final molasses tank for the raw factory. Drying of the sugar is undertaken using hot air at 55 C initially followed by ambient air. There is no conditioning step prior to bagging of the white sugar. 2.6 Colour balance and sample analysis

A photograph of snap samples of the various process streams through the WSM plant is shown in Figure 2.8. Typical colour values are as follows: Clear juice Permeate juice Deashed juice Decolourised juice 20,000 IU 18,000 IU 2,500 IU 400 IU

Some daily analyses are given in Table 2.1.

Figure 2.8

Snap samples of streams showing (L to R) UF feed, permeate, retentate, deashed juice, decolourised juice, the resultant white sugar and raw sugar from the normal process

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Table 2.1

Analyses of process streams for three consecutive days (Jensen et al., 2006) Brix Pol Purity (%) pH Colour (IU) Ash (%)

Day 1 UF feed IX feed Interstage White juice White syrup Day 2 UF feed IX feed Interstage White juice White syrup Day 3 UF feed IX feed Interstage White juice White syrup

n.a. 25.0 18.5 16.2 66.3 25.6 25.1 n.a. 15.8 71.1 32.4 25.8 19.8 17.6 72.2

21.4 16.4 14.5 59.6 21.6 20.9 14.3 62.5 25.7 20.7 17.3 15.9 65.3

85.7 88.3 89.7 89.9 84.3 83.5 90.5 87.9 79.2 80.2 87.2 90.4 90.5

6.5 7.0 8.1 7.1 7.4 7.1 7.9 5.8

20,745 1,360 78 183 27,725 16,587 118 157 22,720 21,640 1,863 98 180

0.8 0.02 0.01 0.03 0.8 0.8 0.01 0.04 1.1 0.8 0.02 0 0.01

6.4 6.7

2.7

Product handling

The white sugar is dried and bagged into 1 t bags (see Figure 2.9) on site. There is no sugar conditioning step between the dryer and the bagging plant. The white sugar is sent to the THS refinery for bagging in small bags for retail sale.

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Figure 2.9 2.8

White sugar stored in 1 t bags ready for transport

Plant specification

The following specification for the plant was provided: Capacity: Capital cost: Major equipment: - 425 m2 membrane filtration area - 90 m3 ion-exchange resin - 1 MW refrigeration plant - 5.5 MW liquid-liquid heat exchangers - 2600 m2 triple effect falling film evaporation plant - 2000 m2 fertiliser evaporation plant (double effect Kestner evaporators) - 50 m3 batch pan (unstirred, mild steel) - 1.2 t batch centrifugal - Drying, storage and 1 t bagging plant 2.9 Benefits 200 t white sugar per day ~USD12M (2005 cost)

For the conditions applying in South Africa, the WSM process has a number of benefits and is claimed to be economically attractive.

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2.9.1

Sugar recovery

If the whole throughput of a factory was to be treated through a WSM process the expected improvement in sugar recovery from molasses is about 7 %. Laboratory tests have shown that the target purity for the exhausted WSM molasses is ~25 purity. The crystallisation rate for WSM treated syrup is considerably higher as a consequence of the higher purity and lower viscosity and turbidity. This effectively provides a crystallisation capacity increase. This is similar to the benefits claimed from membrane filtration alone (Kochergin et al., 2001; Kwok, 1996; Steindl, 2001; Steindl and Doyle, 1999; Steindl and Rackemann, 2002). The extra sugar recovery from molasses must be balanced against sucrose losses of 0.5 to 1.0 % in the WSM process due to washing of membranes and resin. The blended 1st and 2nd strike sugars boiled from the treated syrup will meet EEC2 quality standards. The sugar from two recovery boilings is remelted and recycled to the decolourised juice stream. 2.9.2 Reduced scaling

The demineralisation step has a major impact on the amount of scaling deposited on the heating surfaces in the evaporators, reducing the scale deposited to insignificant levels. This results in a capacity increase as the HTCs in these vessels will not progressively decline over time. Cleaning frequency, time to clean and chemical demand are drastically reduced to provide savings in chemicals, downtime and throughput disruptions. A similar but smaller effect would be found in the vacuum pans. When used as a fermentation feedstock, the WSM molasses provides benefits of reduced scaling in the distillation columns, reduced cleaning costs and improved operations. The quantity of dunder produced by the distillery is much less when WSM molasses is used as feedstock instead of conventional raw sugar factory final molasses. 2.9.3 Fermentation

The WSM molasses is a clean, high quality fermentation feedstock that should provide opportunities for improved yields from a range of by-product opportunities. Experimental work done in Brazil using the WSM pilot plant showed a 2 % increase in ethanol yield compared to conventional clarified juice as the fermentation feedstock. When decolourised juice was used as the fermentation feedstock, a 7 % improvement in ethanol yield was obtained compared to using clarified juice. 2.9.4 Fertiliser

Figure 2.10 illustrates the current cycle between the canefield and the factory for those South African factories with conventional milling tandems.

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K Fertiliser N Fertiliser Minerals Filter Cake

Cane Raw Sugar Blackstrap Molasses (Minerals)

Figure 2.10

The status quo for cane flow to the factory and filter cake recycle back to the canefields (Jensen et al., 2006)

Disposal of the regenerant chemicals is a major issue with any ion-exchange installation. THS has addressed this issue by using resins and developing CIP procedures that require chemicals that can be directed to canefields to take advantage of their nutrient value. Potassium is removed from the juice and nitrogen is recovered from the regenerant chemicals. The Felixton WSM plant includes a two stage evaporator station to concentrate the wash materials and regeneration chemicals from 5 brix to 50 brix, prior to use as fertiliser. These chemicals can be applied directly to the canefields, substituting purchased fertilisers, thereby reducing the operating costs of the WSM process and minimising the environmental impact. The cycle for the flow of cane and nutrients for the WSM process is illustrated in Figure 2.11.

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K Fertiliser N Fertiliser Minerals

K Fertiliser N Fertiliser Minerals Filter Cake

Cane White Sugar High Grade Molasses

N Chemicals
Figure 2.11

The potential benefits in recycling both filter cake and fertiliser back to the canefields to eliminate regenerant chemical disposal (Jensen et al., 2006)

3.

Acknowledgements

The assistance provided by Mr Paul Schorn in providing the opportunity for the visit and Dr Craig Jensen for making the time available to discuss the WSM plant were greatly appreciated. QUT gratefully acknowledges funding for this project from the Australian Government via the Sugar Research and Development Corporation.

4.

References

Jensen, C.R.C., Kitching, S.M., Rosettenstein, S. and Ahmed, F. (2006). The application of WSM technology at Felixton Mill, South Africa. Proc. Process Workshop, Int. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., Louisiana, U.S.A., May. Kochergin, V., Kearney, M. and Alvarez, J.F. (2001). Direct production of white sugar in cane mills. Proc. Int. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 24:108-111.

16 Kwok, R.J. (1996). Ultrafiltration/softening of clarified juice The door to direct refining and molasses desugarisation in the cane sugar industry. Proc. S. Afr. Sug. Technol. Ass., 70: 166-170. Steindl, R.J. (2001). Membrane filtration technology in the cane sugar industry. Proc. Int. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 24: 3-10. Steindl, R.J. and Doyle, C.D. (1999). Applications and benefits of membrane filtration for the Australian sugar industry. Proc. Aust. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 21: 406-411. Steindl, R.J. and Rackemann, D.W. (2002). Application of membrane filtration in raw sugar factories. SRDC Project Report SRI096.

5.

Other publications associated with WSM

Fechter, W.L., Kitching, S.M., Rajh, M., Reimann, R.H., Ahmed, F.E., Jensen, C.R.C., Schorn, P.M. and Walthew, D.C. (2001): Direct production of white sugar and whitestrap molasses by applying membrane and ion-exchange technology in a cane sugar mill. Proc. Int. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 24: 100-107. Fechter, W.L., Brewer, P.A., Van De Pypekamp, G. and Smith, I.A. (2000). Treatment of sugar juice. US Patent 6,709,527, March 31, 2000. Jensen, C.R.C. and Kitching, S.M. (2007). Options for retrofitting white sugar milling (WSM) technology into existing raw sugar factories. Proc. Int. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 26: CD-ROM. Jensen CRC (2007). Direct white sugar manufacture in the cane sugar industry via membrane filtration and continuous ion-exchange demineralisation. Zukerindustrie 132(57), 446. Rossiter, G., Jensen, C., and Fechter, W. (2002). White sugar from cane at the factory: The impact of WSM. S.P.R.I. 2002 Conference Proceedings, 162

6.

Dissemination to the Australian industry

A summary of the technologies associated with the WSM plant will be presented to member mills during the Regional Research Seminars to be conducted in each of the major centres in late April 2008. A copy of this report will be made available to member mills of SRL.