Pan design and operational changes to suit Australian pan stages operating on low pressure vapour

If the Australian sugar industry is to substantially increase the revenue from bagasse (e.g. from cogeneration, biofuels, animal feeds) the pan stages must operate effectively on low pressure vapour e.g. vapour from the third evaporation stage, in order to reduce the steam consumption to below 35% on cane. Currently the lowest steam consumption in Australian factories is ~40% on cane. The designs of the majority of the strike pans currently in the industry (viz. large, unstirred batch pans) are appropriate for operation on steam/vapour of pressure 180 kPa abs and higher but are unsuited to operation on vapour of 90 to 80 kPa abs, as would be required. Changes to the designs of pans, ancillary equipment, the boiling flowschemes and control profiles will be needed.

The project is identifying the changes that minimise the required capital investment while still maintaining production throughput, achieving high levels of sugar recovery and producing high quality shipment sugar.