Process

Operations:

Al Khaleej Sugar Refinery is built using the latest technology to process raw sugar into refined sugar as per EEC-2 Standard. The current capacity of the plant is 5,000 tons per day. However the plant has achieved record daily production capacity of 6,160 tons in July, 2010. Apart from the process facilities, the refinery has off sites and utilities like steam boilers, turbo alternator, raw and refined sugar handling and storage facilities.

Process:

Our Refinery uses the carbonation process for purification the raw sugar. The refinery operations are controlled by D.C.S. (Distributed Control System) through a central control room. Raw sugar is received in bulk in ships, unloaded by shore-based cranes and conveyed by belt conveyors to the raw sugar stores, through that weighing process is taken place by online scale, raw sugar is withdrawn from the bottom of the stores for refining processes as per the following steps:

Melting:

The raw sugar is withdrawn from the store to be melted with hot water in the sugar melter under controlled pH, Brix and temperature, the raw sugar liquor is screened (to remove large size foreign insoluble materials).

Carbonation:

The screened raw sugar liquor is treated with a measured quantity of milk-of-lime, and then sent to the carbonation columns, where clean carbon dioxide gas is bubbled into the limed liquor forming calcium carbonate which acts as purifying agent and removes appreciable levels of color, ash and turbidity. The process runs under controlled pH, Brix and temperature.

Filtration:

The suspended calcium carbonate formed during carbonation, along with impurities, are removed from the treated sugar liquor by pressure filters (two sets of filters to ensure maximum removal of suspended materials), producing clean filtered liquor. When the filters are filled with mud (the removed suspended materials with impurities), they are sluiced with water, forming sweet mud slurry. This sweet mud slurry is sent to de-sugarizing filters to remove the suspended materials from the slurry, producing press cake with minimum sugar content, to be discharged outside the plant and used as landfill. The filtrate known as sweet-water is recycled for use in sugar melting.

Decolorization:

The clear filtered liquor is passed through columns containing granular activated carbon, for decolorization. The decolorized liquor is sent to fine filtration to remove any carbon fines, which may get entrained in it from the decolorization columns. The granular carbon gets exhausted after certain number of cycles and therefore it needs reactivation or regeneration. A multiple-hearth furnace is used for reactivation of the carbon utilizing LPG as fuel.

Evaporation:

The decolorized fine liquor is concentrated in the falling film evaporators to get an optimum Brix suitable to feed the vertical continuous vacuum pans.

Crystalisation:

The sugar is boiled (crystallized) in vertical continuous vacuum pans, where seed magma and concentrated liquor is feed continuously. Seed magma for continuous vacuum pan is prepared in batch pan by boiling concentrated fine liquor.

Refined Sugar Drying, Screening And Storage:

The refined sugar separated by the batch centrifuges, is wet and needs drying. Semi - Fluidized bed dryer is used for drying. The dried sugar crystals are classified into extra fine crystals (Extra Fine Sugar), fine crystals (Fine Sugar), & coarse crystals (Coarse Sugar) by a set of vibrating screens; the screened products are sent to conditioning silos as per the grain size classifications. The conditioned sugar is withdrawn from the bottoms of the silos and conveyed to the bagging section, where the products are filled into bags of required capacities.

Recovery House:

In this part of the refinery, a series of boiling and other processes are followed to recover the maximum quantity of sugar out of low purity liquors and recycle it in the refinery for more processing, Sugar Syrup as a by-product is produced in this house and sold as energy reach supplementary additive used in animal feed preparations.