2nd slide

Sucrose is extracted from the sugar cane stalk in a cane sugar Mill, purified and crystallized into a tan colored raw sugar. The sugar we consume must be further refined so as to not impart color, flavor or odor to the foods and beverages it sweetens. In a cane sugar Refinery the raw sugar is remelted and the sucrose is further decolorized with ion exchange resins, carbon or bone char and crystallized into white sugar for industry, consumers and confectioners. Although the ion exchange resins are used in the refinery, it is useful to understand the mill operations also. But we will not go into detail because here what are interested in is how the control system works in a sugar factory. rd slide The refining process
Sucrose is purified from raw sugar !"#.$% sucrose& in a four step process as follows' affination ( dissolving off some surface impurities. this process removes the the thin layer of molasses and impurities from raw sugar crystals using centrifugal machines. carbonatation ( removing further impurities that precipitate from solution with calcium carbonate. Basically what we are doing here is adding carbon dioxide and lime to the melted sugar to form a precipitate of calcium carbonate. The carbonatation precipitate is removed by pressure filtering the sugar li uor through cloth in a pressure leaf filter, leaving a straw! coloured, crystal clear li uid. I)* absorption + I)* is used here to absorb the colourant in the brown syrup so that a light amber syrup is produced which we call fine syrup.

,th slide refining process continued )vaporation and crystallisation + the fine syrup is concentrated upto "#$ using a double(effect evaporation system. The concentrated syrup is then further evaporated in vacuum under boiling pans. %rystals are produced here. -rying, cooling and screening + dried to a moisture content of less than &.&#$ and cooled to a temperature of less than '& degrees %elsius and then screened into fine and medium grain(sized products. .ackaging + the product is finally packed into packages of various si(es. $th slide /ontrol during carbonation + 2nd step in process 0ll traces of lime must be removed before the concentration step to prevent scale buildup. /arbon dioxide,therefore, is added to the 1uice to precipitate the lime as less soluble calcium carbonate !limestone&, which also tends to capture other impurities during precipitation. /arbon dioxide is usually added in several stages to avoid an unmanageable type of precipitate that can develop in single stage carbonation. 2th slide /arbonation continued 0t each stage, the p3 is measured and carbon dioxide is automatically in1ected. 4y the last stage, the p3 should be reduced to about ". 0fter carbonation, the 1uice is filtered to remove all traces of solid particles before flowing to the sulphitation tower. #th slide
Addition of Sulfur Dioxide (Sulfitation)

Sulfur dioxide is automatically added to the 1uice to lower the p3 to roughly $(2 before it goes on to the evaporators. The sulfur dioxide also bleaches the 1uice to

improve flavor and texture. 5ithout this step, an alkaline 1uice would be produced, the sugar crystals would stick together due to excess moisture, and the product would have an undesirable taste.