New Sugar Milling Technology

South Africa’s Sugar Milling Research Institute NPC (SMRI) is in the final rollout stages to the industry of technology that allows the rapid and simultaneous analysis of processing streams for seven analytes that includes sucrose.

The technology, which uses Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), permits rapid collection of more complete analytical data during the milling operation.

Steve Davis, the Research and Development Manager at the SMRI which is located on the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said that together with an associated decision-support toolkit, the technology would allow factory staff to identify areas of potential sucrose loss within hours. “They will then be able to take corrective action to reduce further losses which means more ‘sugar in the bag’,” Davis said.

Staff from the research institute he said, were currently visiting mills to fast track the transfer and uptake of the technology.

A further landmark development Davis said was the pending full-scale trials in the 2017/18 milling season of the institute’s patented Direct Clear Juice (DCJ) technology. “If the trials are successful the technology will be available for the domestic industry next year,” he said.

The DCJ technology he added entails a modification to a sugarcane diffuser with the result that the juice clarification and filtration would then take place directly inside the modified diffuser.

“This means there is no need for external clarification. Associated sucrose losses are reduced and energy savings are increased,” he said.

Davis said the institute was also making good progress with the development of its continuous seed production system code-named TachyX.

The system continuously generates high quality crystal seed for feeding into vacuum pans and will effectively replace the current batch process.

“The Tongaat Hulett Technology Group together with co-funding from the Technology Innovation Agency has helped to take this technology from an idea, through laboratory development and trials to the pilot plant stage. The pilot plant will shortly be producing sufficient quantities of crystal seed adequate for production trials at the Huletts Refinery at Rossburgh. This is a major step towards the development of a commercial prototype,” he said.

Davis went on to say that the SMRI’s strategic research efforts were bolstered by the award in 2014 of a major funding contract by the Department of Science and Technology, through its Sector Innovation Fund programme. This public/private partnership will see an injection of R19-million over four-and-a-half years, coupled with cash and in-kind contributions from the sugar milling industry and academic collaborators into research that is aligned with the strategic objectives of the South African sugarcane processing industry. This initiative, entitled “Sugarcane Technology Enabling Programme for Bioenergy (STEP-Bio)”, is looking at technologies and products derived from sugarcane that will help the industry to move towards a biorefinery approach, producing multiple sugar, chemical and bio-energy products in an integrated fashion to increase substantially the revenue generated from processing of sugarcane.

“Presently, 24 Honours, Masters and PhD students and four post-doctoral researchers are funded by STEP-Bio at five South African universities, and two Masters students have already graduated. The programme has already seen some innovative ideas and technologies being researched, and the SMRI believes that the industry can look forward to some exciting developments soon” he said.

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