"Recently, the
Amalgamated Sugar Company factory at Paul, Idaho utilized the Sugars
program for the evaluation of waste heat recovery to reduce steam
consumption during both the beet processing and juice processing
campaigns.
The Mini-Cassia
factory located in Paul, Idaho, processes up to 3.2 million tons of
beets per season while operating for approximately 180 slicing days.
Thick juice produced from the crop is processed over a period of
approximately 280-300 sugar end operating days. The company elected to
install the necessary equipment to reduce energy consumption to the
world class standard of 19% steam on beet from its current consumption
of 23-24% steam on beet using a thorough application of waste heat
recovery.
Detailed process models were constructed with Sugars for the beet and
juice campaigns to evaluate the installation of equipment to give the
best overall waste heat recovery strategy for the factory. The models
also allowed a full analysis of the effects on cooling water
requirements and total condensate production from the plant. Thus, a
full evaluation of the impact of the aggressive waste heat recovery
strategy on not only steam consumption but also on plant utilities and
waste water production were possible using Sugars. The Sugars modeling
software, when correctly utilized for the detailed construction of
process systems model, has proven to be quite capable of precise
prediction of the effects of process modifications on energy consumption
and process material flows.”
Chris Rhoten
Manager of Process Technology
The Amalgamated Sugar Company, LLC
Paul, Idaho USA
March 23, 2011
"Rogers
Sugar operates one cane refinery in Vancouver, Canada and one beet
factory in Taber, Canada - each has a copy of Sugars. An associated
company, Lantic Sugar in Montreal, Canada also has a copy of the
program.
We
have used Sugars since 1989. Our principle use has been for material and
energy balances around evaporators and heaters. On first receiving the
program, we were quite happy to save the full cost of Sugars on one
evaporator calandria replacement. We used the program to calculate a
heating surface area that was smaller than the one that we were
replacing and the difference in cost was more than enough to pay for the
program. In 1997, we used the program for the heat and material portion
of a 50% expansion of our beet factory. The consulting engineering firm
for the expansion wanted to do this work and pass on substantial charges
for doing it, but we opted to use Sugars and our own personnel. The
expansion is now complete and the steam and material balances have
proven to be very accurate. The work involved the installation of a
complete new evaporator station and the addition of a number of new
heaters.
Prior
to getting the program, I personally did many evaporator calculations
and wrote programs to assist in this work. However there is no
substitute for the ease of use and accurateness of the Sugars program at
such a reasonable cost."
Bryon
Karren
Director
of Technical Operation
Rogers
Sugar
Vancouver, Canada
"Together with other models and programs developed by our process
engineers, Suiker Unie is using Sugars for heat- and sugar-
balances. Once you have a model of the factory, changes can be
made rapidly. User-friendliness has improved dramatically during
the 25 years that we have used Sugars. The last major project was
the reconstruction and optimization of the evaporator station in our
Vierverlaten Factory. Many different concepts had to be evaluated.
This was fully done using Sugars. We think it is a powerful
engineering tool and the results are accurate and reliable."
J.L.M. Struijs
Cosun Food
Technology Centre
Roosendaal, The
Netherlands
“American
Crystal Sugar Company operates five factories in the Red River
Valley. We have used Sugars at various levels throughout our company for
many years. Each factory maintains its own Sugars model and has a
designated person who uses the model in two primary fashions.
First, we use it for daily operations. It gives us an opportunity to
test possibilities prior to implementing them. The model is built so it
mirrors our factory conditions almost exactly. If we run into unique
operating circumstances, we use the model to determine where we are
straying from the norm. It also does a nice job of predicting how
changes will impact the current conditions. For example, during the past
campaign, we had some very difficult juice to process in one of our
factories, and the factory was struggling. We used Sugars quite
intensely to develop a plan for improving our factory performance. With
it, we were able to model a unique approach to processing. The factory
was modified according to the model and it exactly produced the results
predicted by Sugars.
Second, we use it for capital justification. All capital projects must
first be modeled on Sugars. We are able to predict the feasibility of a
capital projects as-well-as potential problems and pay back. Sugars
helps us avoid those unforeseen problems that can occur with a new
project. Also, it helps us develop a level of confidence in the
potential payback.
Another side benefit that Sugars provides to us is that all five
factories use the same platform to model their processes. With a common
modeling platform, it is much simpler to exchange information and
compare performance and to employ outside consultants that use Sugars.
All in all, we find Sugars to be a very useful tool. I highly recommend
it.”
Paul Fry
Process Engineer
American Crystal Sugar Company
Hillsboro, North Dakota USA
"As
Holly Sugar Corporation, we have used the Sugars program since
its inception. Now as Imperial Sugar Company, we include Holly
Sugar Corporation, Imperial Sugar Refinery, Spreckels Sugar Company,
Dixie Crystals or Savannah Foods & Industries Inc., Michigan Sugar
Company, Diamond Crystal Specialty Foods, and Wholesome Foods. We have
multiple Licenses of the Sugars Program and some plants have modeled the
whole process while in the engineering department we use it to model
process changes that we will make under our capital improvement
projects. With the new Windows Version of Sugars using Visio, the
program is much easier to set up and use and this will increase the
usage of the program at the plant level."
James
H. Roeder P.E.
Chief
Engineer
Imperial
Sugar Company
Sugar
Land, Texas USA
"Spreckels
Sugar Company has utilized the Sugars modeling program very
successfully to evaluate process improvements and the integration of new
processes into existing factory operations. Specific examples of these
uses are the reconfiguration of sugar end operations and integration of
the molasses desugarization process at the Mendota, California factory.
During
the design phase, the Sugars model provided the means to evaluate a
number of possible configurations as well as potential bottlenecks and
deficiencies. After start-up, the model provided for the quick
evaluation of actual operations and helped identify solutions to achieve
operating targets.
Overall,
the Sugars model has proven to give an accurate prediction of the
process operation for both material and energy balances. For the Mendota
project, the results actually being achieved by the factory are within a
few percentage points of the predicted material and energy balances and
well within the normal process variation to be expected."
Chris
Rhoten, V.P. (now with The Amalgamated Sugar Co.)
Spreckels
Sugar Co. (now owned by Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Coop.)
Pleasanton,
California USA
"The
Sugars program has revolutionized Process Engineering at American
Crystal Sugar Company. We use the program exclusively to evaluate
the process impact of new technologies, establish project savings
estimates, and develop master material balances for further engineering
design work. We have so much confidence in the Sugars model that process
enhancement projects do not go forward without first being tested on the
Sugars program."
Neil
Juhnke, Production Superintendent
American
Crystal Sugar Company
Moorhead,
Minnesota USA
"In
our opinion, Sugars is one of the most useful tools for simulation,
calculation and teaching, that we have ever used, in the works for
improvement of our facilities."
Ebro
Agricolas (now Azucarera Ebro Agricolas S.A.)
Madrid,
Spain
"Sugars
was the main tool that we used in developing the heat and material
balance for the grass roots beet factory we are building in Moses Lake,
Washington USA. After the model of the factory was developed, Sugars was
used extensively during the design phase of the project to quickly weigh
one design option against another. No changes in design were done before
first analyzing them with Sugars. The data from the Sugars balance was
used to size all of the pumps, piping and new process equipment that we
are installing at Moses Lake."
Troy
Wright, Process Engineer
Imperial
Holly Corporation
Sugar
Land, Texas USA
"We
used Sugars to model the syrup mixing and flash crystallization stages
in our continuous vacuum crystallizers (CVC's). The modeling showed us
which parameters had the biggest influence on crystal yield and which
were likely to cause problems with false grain.
As
a result of the modeling work, we changed the operating conditions of
the CVC's and achieved an increase in crystal yield without an increase
in false grain formation, or any other significant effect on sugar
quality."
Steve
Williams, Production Manager
British
Sugar plc
Wissington,
England
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