Table of Contents 2 3

I. Introduction Importance Objectives Products II. Body Comparison and Contrast of two processes A. SAT Process B. Sulfitation Process C. Phosphatation Process D. Carbonatation Process Cost Efficiency Production Efficiency Disadvantages / Environmental Issues Advantages Figures Figure 1. Conventional Cane Raw Sugar Figure 2. New SAT Process Figure 3. The Sulfitation Process Figure 4. P-S Process Figure 5. P-C Process III. Conclusion IV. Recommendation V. References

4 5 7 8 9 10 12 14 19 20

21 22 23

I. Introduction About 20% of the world's supply of sugar is derived from sugar beet, the vast majority of which is produced in industrialized countries (France and USA are the top producers), while the remaining 80% is derived from sugarcane, mainly produced in developing countries (Brazil, India, EU and China are the top producers) and under tropical climates. Beet sugar is harvested in the autumn and early winter by digging them out of the ground. Sugar beet is a rotational crop which requires nearly 4 times the land area of the equivalent cane crop. Sugar cane is a sub-tropical and tropical crop that prefers lots of sun and lots of water - provided that its roots are not waterlogged. Sugarcane crop typically takes about 12 to 18 months to reach maturity and is harvested by chopping down the stems but leaving the roots so that it re-grows in time for the next crop. First harvest after the cane gets harvested is called plant cane while the growth of the plant cane that gets left behind is called ratoon cane. Generally, the costs of producing sugar from sugar cane are lower than those in respect of processing sugar beets. Sugar cane is a hardy crop which can stand climatic extremities without a significant decline in crop yield or sugar recovery. Typical sugar content for mature cane would be 10% by weight but the figure depends on the variety and varies from season to season and location to location. Equally, the yield of cane from the field varies considerably but a rough and ready overall value to use in estimating sugar production is 100 tons of cane per hectare or 10 tons of sugar per hectare. Sugar from sugar cane is extracted today much the same as it was 40 years ago. Sugar extracted from sugar cane is processed to become raw sugar at sugar mills and then further purified to refined white sugar in a sugar refinery, using energy intensive processes. Volumes of research have been conducted on nature of colorants, polysaccharide and inorganic profile of sugar process streams over the past thirty (30) years. However very few research priority have been directed to develop a sugar process that will produce the same quality sugar at cane sugar factories that is currently provided at sugar refineries at a significant reduction in energy consumption. There a lot of processes involved in the production of sugar but the study only focus on comparing four from the most leading processes namely: SAT process, Sulfitation/sulphitation process, Phosphatation (Flotation) process and Carbonatation process.

Today, there was a study and research that Phosphation could be combined either carbonatation process or sulphitation process. The raw material to be used for these four processes is sugar cane which was described above. Importance The study has its valuable importance for it would render guidelines on which process should be used in sugar production. Scientists have made various experiments in order to produce a process which would satisfy the needs of people. Previous processes have its disadvantages and advantages which lead scientists to create a process that have plenty of benefits and well-equipped. The introducing of two processes will be well compared and investigated, in turn to draw conclusions and recommendations at its most reliable condition. Objectives y In line with the title of this comparative study, it aims to determine which of the two processes best and ideal for sugar production in terms of benefits, cost efficiency and production efficiency. y It also aims to meet the global needs of sugar which shows how sugar production can be produced at extensive way without diminishing its quality. Products The two processes have the same raw material (sugar cane) which have also same product right after which is sugar specifically a refined white sugar. The sugar produced will be used for the manufacture of different products by the other industries. Since the 1980's, the sugar production in Asian has developed rapidly. At the same time, the proportion of white sugar and refined sugar has risen, as well as their trade in the international market. This is because the direct production of white sugar is more profitable than that of raw sugar, especially when the product is of high quality and has a favorable price. Many sugar factories that originally produced raw sugar have been re-equipped to produce white or refined sugar, and the production of superior sugar at lower cost has been an increasingly important topic.

II. Body Factors affecting the color of white/refined sugar includes: purity and color of pan feed liquor, color types, polysaccharides, ash constituents, sugar crystal size and distribution, and boiling time. SAT process is designed/ developed to reduce/minimize and improve or change these effects in order to produce white/refined sugar (Chou, 2002). Phosphatation was enhanced with many advances which have been achieved and new flotation-clarification processes have been developed in the sugar industry. These processes have improved the quality of the sugar produced, and in some cases, increased the capacity of sugar plants. It involves addition of lime (CaO) and phosphoric acid (H3PO4 or P2O5) to the melt liquor which results in formation of a calcium phosphate precipitate. Color bodies adsorb onto the calcium phosphate precipitate and are removed during the subsequent clarification and filtration. Polymers are added to aid in the formation of a precipitate floc which is more easily filtered. Refinery carbonatation has been used for over 100 years for the refining of raw sugar. It is a cheap and robust process. It involves adding lime (CaO) to the melt liquor and then passing this juice through a carbonation vessel where carbon dioxide (CO2) is bubbled up through the juice. The reaction of the carbon dioxide with the lime produces a calcium carbonate precipitate. Color bodies are entrapped in the precipitate and are removed during filtration of the solids. Another action occurring in the limed melt liquor is destruction of invert sugars at the high pH produced by the lime. Polymers are added to the juice to assist in the formation of a precipitate floc which is more easily settled and filtered. Comparison and Contrast of the four processes

Examining their respective processes, they dont have any comparison, yet they have the same product yield: white sugar or refined sugar. The crystal sugar color is greatly affected by the color and purity of pan feed liquor. Generally crystallization removes between 90 to 96 % of color. The lower the color of feed liquor the better the sugar color (Chou, 2002). Chou (2002) hypothesized, The higher the purity of cane juice the easier it is to make white sugar. For the SAT process the cane juice should have a minimum purity of 85. Cane juice with low purity would contain large percentage of invert sugar, which would not only create color but also induce significant sucrose loss, particularly at low pH as practiced in sulfitation processes for production of plantation white. The following data evidences the tremendous sucrose loss due to sulfitation, up to 5%, due to low pH and high invert in the cane juice. Sulphitation processes are subject to almost as many modifications as simple defecation (Sugar Industry, 2011). Treating diffusion juice with lime and then sulphitation decreases the colour of syrup, raw sugar, and refined sugar by 25% 46% and 35% respectively the filterability is improved and molasses purity is lower, giving better sugar recovery. Although the sugar manufactured through syrup sulfitation has low colour and good lustre initially, it loses both the colour and the lustre within a few months. Depending on storage conditions, the colour can increase from 60 IU to 100 IU or even 120 IU within 6 to 10 months. There are several reasons for this deterioration, but one of the main reasons is sulfur. When first applied, SO2 bleaches the syrup, reduces the iron present in the juice and makes it colourless, resulting in a low colour sugar. However, this is only a temporary effect. The colour returns with time, as the remaining iron compounds oxidise into dark-coloured compounds. In addition, the sugar retains high sulfur content (Kulkarni, 2010). A. SAT Process In essence, The SAT process uses (a) the membrane with right pore size to remove color, polysaccharide, and their complexes, after addition of processing aids, in order to reduce both feed liquor color and color transfer coefficient, and (b) processing aids to increase EPA and to change the nature of colorants in order to reduce occlusion of sugar color into sugar crystal (Chou, 2002).

The SAT process was developed at Sugar Processing Research Institute under the direction of its former managing director, Dr. Chung Chi Chou (Journal American Society of Sugarcane Technologists, 2002). According to Chou (2004), SAT process is an improvement of the New Applexion Process (NAP) in which clarified juice is ultra filtered through membrane. This process involves the addition of processing aids to clarified raw juice followed by UF membrane filtration to produce refined quality sugar with color ranging from 80 to 200 ICU (Chou, 2002). SAT process was developed to produce sparkling white sugar directly from cane sugar mills without sulphitation, carbonation (Chou, 2002), and floatation processes (Chou, 2004). Moreover Chou (2004) suggested, With the SAT process a raw sugar mill can easily produce Very Low Color (VLC) sugar with color of 400 to 600 ICU and Ultra Low Color (ULC) sugar with color of 100 to 200 ICU. When VLC raw sugar is shipped for further refining, A refinery can eliminate affination and carbonation/ phosphatation processes. For ULC sugar, a refinery can eliminate all the processes before pan boiling with considerable operating cost saving. These advantages are illustrated in the following figure 1. See Figure 2. A conventional raw sugar mill clarifier is used to treat the mixed juice first. The clarified juice is then subject to SAT process treatment as follow: two processing aids are added separately to the clarified juice with at least five minutes apart between the additions to facilitate the reaction. The treated clarified juice is then filtered through a cross flow UF membrane system which produces at least 90% of permeate and a maximum of 10 % retentate. The permeate fraction is sent forward for evaporation. The retentate fraction is further subject to secondary clarification together with the under flow from the drum filters to remove highly concentrated suspended matter and macromolecules such as polysaccharides, waxes and gums etc. By clarifying the vacuum drum filtrate together with retentate and sending forward, the capacity of the primary clarifier would increase by about 15%. The clear effluent from the secondary clarifier can either be sent forward for evaporation or sent to the UF system for filtration. The scum from the clarifier is sent back to the drum filters for removal of suspended matter. The two processing aids meet the US regulatory requirements (Chou, 2002).

B. Sulphitation Process The majority of our cane sugar factories uses the Sulphitation process, mainly producing grade b white sugar, or grades a product by the help of additional measures. Some factories adopt the Carbonatation process, often yielding better products. In the sulfitation process shown in figure 3, the plant first heats the mixed juice draft to 165 F (74 C). It then enters the sulfitation tank where both and sulfur dioxide gas and milk of lime are introduced. The juice, saturated with sulfur dioxide, exits the sulfitation section at temperatures as high as 221 F (105 C) with a pH about 7.0 to 7.5. At this point the juice receives an injection of phosphoric acid (H3PO4). Next the liming tank slightly elevates the juice to 7.5 to 7.8 pH before it enters the clarifier. By the time the saturated juice reaches the clarifiers, it has cooled to about 167 F to 176 F (75 C to 80 C). Sulfitation is the final measurement to get the pH right. Improper control of pH compromises the quality of the end product--"white sugar". At low pH, the syrup reacts with nitrogen compounds to form undesirable color, and at high pH alkaline destruction of sucrose and monosaccharides occur. Temperatures are often as high as 212 F (100 C), so this can be challenging pH application (ABB, 2010). Solid sulphur is the most common material used for sulphitation, although liquid or molten sulphur is also available but solidifies below 120 C. Solid sulphur comes from a variety of sources including sulphur mines and oil or gas desulphurisation plants. It also comes in a variety of physical forms, from dust through formed prills to cast roll sulphur of ~50mm diameter (Phils Sugar Technology). Sucrolor is used as an impurity-removing agent. It is added continuously at 10 ppm in the clear juice receiving tank. It is a special polymer of cocodi methyl amine, which reduces the affinity of various impurities to attach themselves to the sucrose crystal lattice during growth. Thus the colour transfer index is improved to produce lower coloured sugar (Kulkarni, 2010). C. Phosphatation/Flotation Process (Phosflotation) Basically, the process consist of precipitating insoluble calcium phosphates of variable composition in hot melt liquor by first adding phosphoric acid , or an acid phosphate, followed by calcium hydroxide, either as slurry with water (milk of lime) or dissolved in sugar syrup as lime sucrate, to give a final pH of 7.2 7.4.

This treatment produces a calcium phosphate floc that is filtered with difficulty. Consequently, air flotation is commonly used to separate the precipitated solids from the liquor; such systems are called frothing clarifiers. During the flocculation and in the course of rising through the liquor, the floccules collect most of the fine suspended impurities in the solution. Impurities such as gums, waxes, and fine are swept from the liquor and appear at the surface as scums. In this manner a rather complete separation of the precipitate and impurities is obtained without resorting to settling or filtration. The scums are then removed from the liquor surface by a skimming device. One important modification to the Phosflotation process is the application of color precipitants, like Talofloc

or Colorgone to refinery remelt liquors whereby

anionic high molecular weight colour and other impurities are precipitated and subsequently removed as a flotation scum. Also the replacement of the conventional clarifiers type Jacobs or Williamson with modern, new circular design, high yield clarifiers has greatly improved the performance of the Phosflotation process. Another advance is the extensive application of highly efficient polyacrylamide flocculants e.g. Taloflote, which not only speeds up clarification, but also strengthens the floc against shearing forces mainly during the desweetening stage. Phosphation could be logically combined with either sulphitation or carbonatation. The process will be shown in figures 4 and 5. D. Carbonatation Process The process consists of adding slurry of calcium hydroxide in water to the raw melt solution. Then carbon dioxide gas is bubbled into the sugar solution in saturators, under controlled conditions of pH and temperature. Generally the carbon dioxide is added to the saturators in two stages, with the major part of the gassing carried out in the first saturator. The impurities are both absorbed by, and enmeshed in, the conglomerated particles of the calcium carbonate precipitated by the reaction of the carbon dioxide and calcium hydroxide. New significant developments for the carbonanatation process, patented by Putsch Co. in the last years, has brought the carbonatation, as the process of choice for updating existing installation or for new refineries. Namely the introduction of Richter Tubes as efficient gas distributors for carbonatation vessels and the utilization of

modern Membrane Filterpresses for single stage filtration of carbonated syrup has given the conventional carbonatation process an impulse to higher performance level. The ease of separation of impurity from carbonated liquorin refinery practice is determinate by the filtrability of the precipitated CaCO3. Provided the design and operating conditions of the saturators follow well-known principles of crystallization processes, the carbonatation system is relatively insensitive to minor variations. It is considerably more dependent on the quantity of lime precipitated in the liquor. For each liquor there are particular lime doses at which the filtrability will be greatest. The optimum lime dose varies from below 0,4 % CaO on solids in some liquors to over 1,2 % CaO in others. Approximately 30 times more lime is precipitated as carbonate during carbonatation than as phosphate during phosphatation. Separation of the clear liquor and the calcium carbonate is done by pressure filtration. This filtration required expensive two-stage filtration plant for the separation and desweetening of the calcium carbonate precipitate. Nowdays single stage filtration is state-of-the-art. Cost Efficiency Sulphitation Process. Chemicals used for the (New Single Sulfitation) VMK Process and cost comparison with normal process for one million tonnes of cane. Table 1 Chemicals used for the VMK Process and cost comparison with normal process for one million tonnes of cane. Parameter Cane sanitation Normal process Not used About USD20 000 Carbamate @10ppm Lime Used based on experience Used arbitrarily VMK process Polmax Supreme @5ppm Polmax ESR @ 10 ppm, USD2900 Dose specified as per results Used judiciously (Not used) Could be reduced Can be reduced Cost +UDS30000*

Mill sanitation

+USD9000*

Phosphoric acid

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Flocculating agent Sulfur Special agents

Magnafloc LT27 @ 12 No ppm change 0.07% or more (700 t) 0.03% saving about 300 t Colour precipitant, USD7 /kg, @10ppm Unspecified surfactant 2 5 ppm Used to improve colour Sucrolor @ 10 ppm, US$ 7 /kg

No change USD45 000** + USD70 000* May not change +

Viscosity reducer Colour coagulant

New formulation 2 5ppm

USD20000*

Not ? used * Prices are calculated at maximum use of chemicals for the VMK Process, actual use of chemicals could be less depending on factory conditions. ** Saving is more as sulfur consumption is less than 0.017%

Phosflotation Process. However, these chemicals are still too expensive for many sugar plants, especially when the world price of sugar is low. Production Efficiency SAT Process. Figure 1 clearly shows that refined sugar can also easily produce in a sugar mill by boiling ULC sugar one more time. As to be shown later in this presentation, a raw sugar mill can produce about 30% of its product as refined sugar without additional capital investment in boiling pans. In addition, the process will be perfect for a refinery attached to a raw sugar mill. In fact, when a ULC sugar is produced by the SAT process, only some additional pans and drying equipment are needed to produce 100 % of refined sugar in the attached refinery. To minimize sugar color, the SAT process requires a minimum of 0.65mm average sugar crystal size (MA) and a maximum of 35 coefficient of variation (CV) for its sugar products. Sulphitation Process. Further processing with sulfur dioxide gas and a centrifuge (not shown in figure 3) produces the white sugar product. The residual sulfur dioxide remaining in the final white sugar is below 10 ppm (ABB, 2010). Moreover, following clarification, quadruple effect evaporators concentrate the clarified thin juice into raw syrup. In these evaporators the vapor given off by the

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boiling juice in the first or previous evaporator is the heat source for the next evaporator. The evaporators increase the solids content to 60 to 70%. The treatment of the syrup with SO2 is known also to reduce sugar colour by just 615% (Keskar, 2009, pers. comm.; Londhe, 2009, pers. comm.). However, significant amounts of sulfur end up in the molasses which may be used for producing alcohol by yeast fermentation. Sulfur affects the fermentation of the molasses by inhibiting the growth of the yeast. Moreover, traces of the sulfur that get into the alcohol make it unsuitable for use as a fuel supplement, as also for use in the liquor and pharmaceutical industries, unless further refinements are carried out to remove these impurities. Thus the use of SO2 in syrup does not provide any significant benefit. Further, whatever benefit does result lasts only for a short period of time. This realization prompted the development of an alternative technology that would avoid at least syrup sulfitation and help in producing good quality sugar (Kulkarni, 2010). The use of appropriate biocides in proper doses is known to limit the microbial degradation of mixed juice and hence limit any reduction in the acidity of the primary and mixed juice and prevent the formation of degradation products like polysaccharides (Kulkarni, 2004). Further, the need for additional lime is prevented and the level of residual calcium as soluble organic calcium salts in the clear juice is not increased. Similarly, there is some reduction in the rise in the colour of juices (Kulkarni and Warne, 2004). Phosflotation Process. Based on this research, a new, highly efficient and low cost system has been developed and brought into use in several sugar factories in the Guangdong Province of china. It is a process combining phosflotation with either sulphitation or carbonatation in which all of the precipitate is removed from the liquor by flotation. Compared with decolorization of about 30% for the simple phosphatation process, this new system has a color removal of 50 to 70%, depending on the manner of combination and the working conditions of the process, which can be selected flexibly according to the quality of the raw sugar treated and the level of c1arification efficiency desired. Environmental Issues with Disadvantages Particulate matter (PM), combustion products, and volatile organic compounds (VOC) are the primary pollutants emitted from the sugarcane processing industry.

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Combustion products include nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), CO2, and sulfur oxides (SO2 ). Potential emission sources include the sugar granulators, sugar conveying and packaging equipment, bulk loadout operations, boilers, granular carbon and char regeneration kilns, regenerated adsorbent transport systems, lime kilns and handling equipment (at some facilities), carbonation tanks, multi-effect evaporator stations, and vacuum boiling pans, from lime kilns and boilers and includes the granular carbon and char regeneration kilns, regenerated adsorbent transporting systems, sugar granulators, granulated sugar transport systems, and sugar packaging operations. The multi-effect evaporators and vacuum boiling pans are a potential source of VOC emissions from the juice. However, only the first three of five evaporators (in a typical five-stage evaporator) release exhaust gases and the gases are used as a heat source for various process heaters before release to the atmosphere. Emissions from the carbonation tanks are primarily water vapor but may contain small quantities of VOC and may also include CO and other combustion gases from the boilers. The exhaust from granulators typically is vented to cyclones to remove large PM and is then passed through a wet cyclone system (e. g., Rotoclone) to remove smaller particles. Fabric filters are sometimes used to control PM emissions from sugar handling operations and from fluidized bed drying and cooling systems. Particulate matter emissions from boilers typically are controlled with cyclones. Wet scrubbers are sometimes used as primary or secondary control devices for boilers. Some natural gas-fired boilers are not equipped with controls. Emissions from the carbonation tanks, evaporators, and vacuum boiling typically are not controlled. Two emission test reports were identified for sugarcane processing. Both tests were conducted at sugar refineries. The first test report documents testing of a sugar granulator that is controlled by a Rotoclone wet cyclone system. The average filterable PM emission factor for the granulator (SCC 3-02-015-37) is 0.095 lb/ton. The filterable PM emission factor for a granulator equipped with a Rotoclone control was 0.064 lb/ton. Because the granulators in cane sugar and beet sugar production are expected to be similar, it is not surprising that the two emission factors are comparable. The second test report includes measurements of filterable PM emissions at the outlet of a gravity collector that controls PM emissions from a bone char

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conveyor transfer point (SCC 3-02-015-26). The average emission factor for this test is 0.26 lb/ton of char transferred. The use of emission factors based on a single test is not recommended. If necessary, the average filterable PM emission factors can be used, but would be rated E. SAT Process. Sugar refining processes use affination (mechanical separation of color), carbonation, phosphatation, bone char, granular carbon and ion exchange resin to remove color before sugar boiling (crystallization) to produce white/refined sugar. Any or combination of above processes selected should perform the highest net color removal with minimum environmental problems. Unfortunately, except affination and crystallization, all other processes create environmental issue. The UF membranes used in the SAT process remove color with minimal effect on environmental quality as shown in the figure4. The color removal ranges from 48% for raw sugar to 58% for affination syrup. The ability of SAT to remove color is essential to make white sugar from sugar mill. The maximum color of clarified cane juice entering the SAT system should not exceed 12,000 ICU. Sulphitation Process. In the sulfitation process, the use of the sulfur burner is difficult as it causes the toxic SO2 to be released into the atmosphere, leading to serious environmental pollution because of this potent greenhouse gas. It can also create health problems for the workers handling the sulfur burners (Kulkarni, 2010). Phosphation Process. Nevertheless refineries using modern Phosphatation/Flotation process still have to deal occasionally with some immanent drawbacks of the system, including high sugar losses, cloudy clarifier liquors and wet scums muds of difficult disposal. Most operators of the process admit having witnessed production of both excellent and poor liquors from a given installation. With the notable exception of one or two refineries, conventional phosphatation-flotation is found in practice to be a sensitive process. Relatively minor changes can have a catastrophic effect on flotation characteristics, leading to the appearance of heavy carry-over in the clarified liquor. If flotation is incomplete, the liquor not only looks bad but is poor in quality and needs to be filtered before it becomes acceptable for the char or ion exchanger treatment. The advantages of phosphatation were recognized in the very early days of sugar refining, but it was slow to receive acceptance because of the difficulties of floc separation. The reasons for the interminable evaluatory debate may lie in the

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fundamental and inherent difference that exists between phosflotation and the two other processes carbonatation and diatomite filtration. This difference is that flotation, unlike diatomite filtration or carbonatation filtration, has no element of positive separation of the insoluble solids. In filtration of the liquor, if the liquor passes through filter cake, it is free of solids of a certain size or it does not pass through. In flotation the liquor passes through a clarifier irrespective of whether complete or nil separation of coagulum is obtained. There exists a special problem for this new system, as CaSO3, and CaCO3, precipitates are heavier and more difficult to float than calcium phosphate and, as the amount of these precipitates are much larger than that in the carbonatation process, it is quite difficult to make such heavy precipitate float steadily and quickly. During the phosphatation process, a by-product containing calcium phosphate and total dissolved solids including dissolved sugar is created, which, at the time, was discharged to sewer as trade waste (Sugar Australia). Carbonatation Process. Firstly certain impurities will have a profound effect upon the nucleation and growth process involved in the formation of the calcium carbonate conglomerate. As a consequence such impurities will impact upon the filtration processes in the refinery. Secondly the presence of other impurities will adversely affect the sugar crystallization process and lastly refined sugar quality will be influenced by this impurities. Advantages Benefits of the SAT process are: 1. Sparkling sugar with color of 85 minimum (ICU) meeting U. S. Food grade standard 2. SO2 less than 6 ppm 3. Increase vacuum pan capacity by 30% 4. Increase clarifier capacity by 15% 5. Reduce evaporator scale by up to 75% 6. Reduce sucrose loss by up to 2% 7. Excellent stability in storage 8. Up to 90% Dextran removal 9. An automated process

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10. No conventional sulfitation/carbonation/flotation process facilitating automation of mills to reduce manning, and consistent high process efficiency and products quality 11. Ability to produce 30% of refined sugar without additional vacuum pan 12. Operate in conjunction with the CTI process to produce white/refined sugar and value added sugarcane extract (antioxidant etc.) Benefits of the Sulphitation Process are: 1. It slows the browning process during the subsequent concentration and crystallization processes allowing white sugar to be produced 2. It keeps the juice from becoming too alkaline, which would cause the sugar crystals to stick together and acquire an undesirable taste 3. It acts as a biocide to sanitize the sugar prior to evaporation 4. pH control the SO2 in aqueous solution forms sulphurous acid H2SO3(aq) which reduces the pH of the process stream. An example of this would the control of diffusion water pH in a beet factory, where keeping the pH below 5.5 reduces the extraction of pectin from the beet cell walls which helps pulp pressing. 5. Biocide used in sufficient quantities the SO2 inhibits the life cycle of bacteria, reducing the quantity of sugar lost by bacterial degradation to lactic acid. This is similar to the use of sodium metabisulphite for sterilising home brewing equipment. The efficiency of SO2 as a biocide is sometimes challenged in the literature. 6. Colour blocking SO2 reacts with the carboxyl groups of invert sugars (glucose and fructose) to inhibit their participation in the colour forming Maillard reaction with amino compounds. By adding SO2 to juice before evaporation the increase in colour through the evaporators is kept to a minimum, protecting the juice from excessive colour formation at high temperature in the evaporators. Benefits of Phosflotation Process are: 1. Color Removal - While phosphatation generally achieves a decoloration in the range of 25-30%, the addition of these color precipitant or cationic surfactants, increases the efficiency of color removal to a high level of about 70%.

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2. Removal of insoluble solids While particles of size under 200 micron are, as a rule, successfully enmeshed in the floccules and are removed in the process, insoluble solids such as bagacillo and fluff of over 200 micron have poor floatability characteristics. Consequently, if not separated by prescreening of the melter liquor, they are carried over with the clarified liquor, imparting to it a cloudy appearance. Furthermore, if present in sufficient quantity they seriously impede liquor flow over the char, by forming a mat on the surface layer. Removal of 50-70% of solids present in the original melt is normally obtainable by the process. 3. Secondary precipitation Formation of floc in phosphate-clarified liquor is usually referred to as the secondary precipitation. The occurrence of this floc has been reported by a number of observers. It, of course, creates problems in the processes subsequent to clarification. In a reasonably wellconducted flocculation process the residual P2O5 is well under 70 ppm and occurrence of secondary precipitation is not likely. But if something can happens, early or later will it happens. 4. Removal of ash Removal of soluble inorganic constituent from melter liquor is one of the objectives of clarification. However, the level of removal obtained by any one of the three conventional methods of clarification is only marginal. Phosflotation, it has been reported by various writers, removes from nil to 20% of ash in the original liquor. 5. Sucrose inversion Exposure of liquor to temperatures ranging from 85 to 99 C, depending on the type of clarifier used, during the flotation period leads to inevitable inversion of sucrose. Most observers reported inversion of the order of 0.01%. Scums from phosphatation systems are generally sent to secondary clarifiers to reduce their sugar content. Two or three stage flotation separators, using polyacrylamide flocculating agents as mentioned, permit countercurrent equipment. desweetening, more or less without filtration

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6. One important advance is the extensive application of highly efficient polyacrylamide flocculants, which greatly increased the velocity and the stability of the flotation-separation process. 7. Another advance is the application of special cationic surfactants such as talofloc, or dioctadecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride, which combines with the negatively charged colorants (the major portion of color) as well as other cationic impurities, which then precipitate together. By this means, the efficiency of color removal and clarification has been increased to a high level. Benefits of Carbonatation Process are: 1. A significant portion of the calcium carbonate cake is required to act as a filter aid and growth of a suitable filtering carbonate cake is as important as colour removal. One of the main objectives of carbonatation is the removal of the impurities present in the raw sugar entering the refinery. These impurities will have negative effects on some of the unit operations in the refinery. Colour Turbidity Starch Gums Sulphates Phosphates Magnesium 55% 90% 93% 29% 86% 100% 67% melt during

Results of impurity removal from

carbonatation (1,10 % CaO addition on Brix) The following comments can be made regarding the results in the above table: y y About 55% of the clour is removed Most of the turbidity (90%), starch (93%), sulphates (86%) and phosphates (100%) are removed y A small amount of the gums is removed.

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A high proportion of magnesium is also removed

2. In addition, it has been shown that during carbonatation glucose, fructose and aconitic acid, if not precautions are taken, can be easily destroyed with increase in lactic acid and higher molasse losses. Basically reducing the contact time of raw melt with lime at high temperature noticeably reduces the invert sugar destruction. 3. It has also been shown that carbonatation removed floc-forming impurities and it has generally been accepted that carbonatation refineries produce floc-free refined sugar. The two main componets responsible for formation of floc are proteins and polysaccharides, known as floc precursors, which are removed by carbonatation. In addition it is confimed that colour removal during carbonatation is a function of the melt colour, amount of lime added and the final pH.

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Figure 1. Conventional Cane Raw Sugar

Figure 2. New SAT process (Integration of Membrane System)

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Figure 3. The Sulfitation Process

Figure 4. Phosphatation-sulphitation

Figure 5. Phosphatation-carbonatation

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III. Conclusion Reported here is a new sugar processing method (SAT) providing an energy efficient and environmentally friendly process for production of white/refined sugar from cane sugar factories. The SAT process is a perfect replacement of carbonation and /or sulfitation processes for production of plantation white sugar. Carbonatation involves an environmental issue for disposal of carbonate cake, particularly for long term consideration. Sulfitation has been known for its serious problems with respect to process instability, operational difficulties, low sucrose yield due to high sucrose loss and poor product quality, including, but not limited to, high SO2 contents and storage problems. Phosphatation yields difficulty to precipitate calcium sulfate and calcium carbonate. The SAT process will: a) minimize color occlusion into sugar crystal during sugar boiling producing sugar product with color ranging from 80 to 200 ICU depending the need of the market ; b) reduce scale formation in the evaporation process by up to 75%; c) increase pan boiling capacity by 30%; d) increase primary clarifier capacity of 15 % by elimination of vacuum drum filtrate recycle; e) reduce sucrose loss by up to 2%; f) reduce sulfate/sulfite content of the sugar; and g) improve the storage stability of sugar products. The crystallized ULC and VLC sugar products from the SAT process in raw sugar mills/factories can be used as food grade products for direct consumption as refined sugar, plantation white sugar, and other low purity refined sugar. Application of the SAT process in raw sugar mills in conjunction with a sugar refinery can eliminate one or more of the various refining processes such as affination, carbonation, phosphatation, and/or granular carbon/bone char/ion exchange for decolorization. In summary, the environmentally friendly SAT process can produce high quality food grade sugar products meeting customers needs with considerable savings in both capital and operating costs.

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IV. Recommendation The best way, economically, technically, and environmentally, to produce refined sugar in the 21st century is to attach simplified refinery to a sugar mill with matching capacity. This sugar mill should be designed to produce sparkling (turbidity free and suspended matter of less than 2 ppm) sugar color of 200 ICU Max with baggasse as the only fuel for the mill. No other source of energy, such as coal, gas, or oil should be needed. The sugar mill should be highly automated (to take the human factor out of the operation) in order to maintain highest process efficiency, consistent product quality and lowest manning (e.g. seven to nine operators per shift.). In the attached simplified refinery, the above 200 ICU sparkling sugar is dissolved to 68 brix and, if desired, evaporated to 75.5 brix for sugar boiling. The refined sugar produced should have a color of 10 to 15 ICU from the first strike and 25 to 30 ICU from the second strike. The attached simplified refinery will have no conventional affination, carbonation, floatation, and granular activated carbon/ ion exchange resin processes. The refinery should be highly automated with three operators/shift (excluding packaging workers) and energy consumption of not more than 45 tons steam / ton of sugar.

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V. References Chou, C.C. (2002). White and Refined Sugar Production from Cane Sugar Factories. Retrieved August 1, 2011. For www.esugartech.com/documents/The%20SAT%20Process.doc Chou, C.C.(2004). Direct Production of Refined Sugar and Value Added Products from Sugar Cane Mills. Retrieved August 4, 2011. For http://www.esugartech.com/technology_pubs/Refined_sugar_and_value_adde d_Products_from_cane_mills.htm Chou, C.C. (2002). SAT Process for Production of White Sugar from Sugar Mills. Journal American Society of Sugarcane Technologists Vol. 22, p.142. Retrieved August 6, 2011. For http://www.assct.org/journal/JASSCT%20PDF%20Files/volume%2022/mana bstracts.pdf Sugar Engineers. (2011). Sulphitation. Retrieved August 8, 2011. For http://www.sugartech.co.za/sulphitation/index.php Phil's Sugar Technology Page. (2011). Sulphitation. Retrieved August 8, 2011. For http://www.yarwell.demon.co.uk/sulph.htm Kulkarni, V.M.(2010). Modified Single Sulfitation Process for Producing Better Quality Plantation White Sugar. Retrieved August 8, 2011. http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/15720795/423128492/name/FP For

Ebookbrowse. (2011). Conventional Sulfitation Process for Plantation White Sugar Production. Retrieved August 8, 2011. For http://ebookbrowse.com/conventional-sulfitation-process-for-plantationwhite- sugar-production-pdf-d80889468 ABB. ( 2010). Analytical-pH Measurement Sugar Mill Sulfitation Process. Retrieved August 9, 2011. For http://www05.abb.com/global/scot/scot212.nsf/veritydisplay/0e668870c18d6e d0852576ab00772bef/$file/a-n-sugar_ph_sulphitation_a.pdf Briones, L. (2007). Comparinsons of Carbonatation and Phosphatation Process for clarification of sugar solutions. Retrieved August 9, 2011. For http://www.sugarxperts.com/dokus/CarbonationvsPhosphatation.pdf Purolite. (2009). Cane Sugar Refining with Ion-Exchange Resins. Retrieved August 8, 2011. For

http://www.purolite.com/Customized/uploads/purolite_sugar_cane%20111909 %20FINAL_JS.pdf

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Sugar Australia. Phosphate Removal at Sugar Australia Cleaner Production CoFunding Case Study. Retrieved August 7, 2011. For

https://www.citywestwater.com.au/documents/Sugar_Aust__Phosphate_Removal_Case_Study.pdf Food and Agricultural Technology. Sugarcane Processing. Retrieved August 8, 2011. For http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/ap42/ch09/final/c9s10-1a.pdf Flotation-Clarification in Sugar Refining. Retrieved August 6, 2011. For http://www.sugar-huo.com/eng/1.htm#3