Jai Bhavani SSK, Georai, Maharashtra was commissioned in 1977-78 and was unable to meet the power as well as fuel requirements for the sugarcane crushing and processing with the traditional setup. Initially plant capacity was 2500 TCD with 54% steam consumption and electrically unbalanced.
This factory was balanced in two phases with steam saving by the addition of energy-efficient equipment like direct contact juice heaters and duplex type condensate heaters for juice heating, falling film evaporators, and new design honeycomb calandria type vacuum pans.
Energy conservation in the sugar industry contributes to majorly steam, power, fuel and water management (1, 2). Presently, a lot of heat and energy are used during processing in heating and cooling, evaporating and concentrating the juices and intermediate sugar products (1, 3). Some factories use medium-pressure steam for sulphur burning, pan washing, sugar drying, melting and molasses heating and centrifugal stations. Many sugar factories use a large quantity of steam per ton of cane for sugarcane processing (3,4, 5). There is a need for sugar factories to reduce their steam and power consumption mostly at evaporation and concentration processes using energy-efficient equipment.
