BMA attends Sugar Industry Technologists’ annual meeting

Because of the pandemic, Sugar Industry Technologists (S.I.T) had to cancel its annual meeting two years in a row. On 18 and 19 April, the event was finally back again. It took place in Orlando, USA – and a team from BMA was there.

After a long break, it was finally time again this spring to compile information material, prepare presentations and pack suitcases.

Uwe Schwanke (Chief Technology Officer), Hans Schmidt (VP Sales), Reinhold Hempelmann (Vice President Engineering) and Kristin Odörfer (Senior Manager Strategic Sales Digital Products) from BMA were not the only ones looking forward to the 81st Sugar Industry Technologists’ event. At the reception on the eve of the official opening of the S.I.T. conference, there were already animated discussions among participants about how their company and they personally had got through the pandemic.

Day 1 of the conference focused on digitalisation and Industry 4.0, with many interesting presentations – including a contribution from BMA. During the panel discussion, Kristin Odörfer offered glimpses of experiences at BMA with digitalisation and “Industry 4.0 – What does this mean to different refineries”. This rounded off a successful start to the conference.

On the afternoon of day 2, Reinhold Hempelmann presented his latest findings on energy efficiency. Together with BMA colleague Deike Laue, he had prepared a paper on “Energy efficiency concepts in sugar house operation – what is old, what is new?”.

On both days of the S.I.T. conference, the presentations were followed by many questions and discussions – feedback that was greatly appreciated by the speakers.

Held at the same time, the supplier fair showcasing innovations for the sugar industry was also very well received. And the convivial conference dinner on Tuesday evening brought the event to a fitting close. 

Many thanks to the organisers at S.I.T. for hosting this successful conference – and to all our customers for the interesting discussions. We look forward to attending S.I.T.’s next annual meeting in New Orleans in 2023. 

To stay up to date with BMA, why not follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook. We always post a “Save the date” for sugar industry trade events and conferences on those platforms. Here is a preview of the dates that have already been set:

• European Society for Sugar Technology (22 – 25 May 2022) 
  Dr Mirko Löhn and Dr Holger Fersterra will be reporting for BMA on “Sugar Substitutes – Particularities and challenges in the crystallisation of non-sucrose sugars”. 

• CONVOCATORIA al Congreso DIVERSIFICACIÓN (20 – 24 June 2022)  
  This AZCUBA Sugar Group congress is planned as a hybrid event, with physical and virtual attendance. 

• American Society of Sugar Cane Technologists 50th Annual Joint Meeting (21 – 23 June 2022) 

• 94th SASTA Congress (16 – 18 August 2022)  

The BMA team wishes all hosts, exhibitors and visitors interesting meetings and enjoyable reunions after a long break – and stay healthy!