Sugar Refinery Clarification
Scope
A large cane sugar refinery in West Africa was reporting poor operation in its phosphatation clarification and scum desweetening process.
Program
Brimac Environmental Services conducted a process audit of the engineering, methods of preparing and use of chemicals and the general operation of the plant.
Several inconsistencies were discovered at the refinery and this was being compounded by operators not having a clear understanding of the process and its parameters.
From this study, a number of recommendations were made to optimise the process along with methodologies for continual assessment and these were implemented by the client. Brimac Environmental Services also carried out a laboratory study to determine optimum chemical dosing settings. A series of staff and operator training sessions were conducted at the refinery to improve the understanding of the process and its control.
Outcome
The training resulted in all employees having a much better understanding of the basics of the processes and how to maintain it at optimum performance.
An improvement in the performance of the refinery both in colour removal and losses within the refinery was observed along with reduced consumption of chemicals.
