Technology transfer between beet and cane sugar industries - Possibilitiesfor energy savings including cogeneration

The steam consumption distribution in the beet and cane sugar industries an compared and defined according to their importance. The state-of-the-art t echnology in the beet sugar industry in respect of energy consumption, as r ealized in the Klein Wanzleben sugar factory in Germany, is discussed. An a nalysis is made of sugar house work, showing technologies (e.g. seed magma system, optimized evaporating crystallizer configuration, continuous and lo w temperature evaporating crystallization) which can be easily applied in t he cane sugar industry with a view to reducing steam consumption significan tly. As a consequence, efficient evaporator plants operating with low tempe rature differences ale required. Another consequence is the requirement for higher pressure steam boilers in order to secure the required prime mover energy and electricity generation. Three examples of how this could be real ized in the cane industry are shown. The net result of the measures describ ed is an appreciable increase in the capacity of the factories to "cogenera te", i.e. to sell surplus energy to the public grid.