Energy efficiency at its core!

In the sugar manufacturing process, clarified juice is concentrated from ~12 Bx (dry substance content) to ~70 Bx in industrial evaporators configured as multiple-effect systems. The full benefits of energy efficiency measures in the downstream and upstream processes can only be reaped if the evaporation station is perfectly tailored to the complete process.  

BMA offers the right evaporator for any application (cane, beet and refinery) and a tailor-made engineering concept to suit your energy efficiency demands.

Falling-film tubular evaporator – a game changer 

The falling-film evaporator has been a game changer for the process house in sugar factories seeking to increase their energy efficiency, offering benefits such as the following:

• High heat-transfer coefficient, especially in later stages of the multiple-effect configuration (juice with high dry substance content) 

• Lower juice residence times in the evaporator, thereby reducing the extent of sucrose losses even at high juice temperatures

• Stable operation, as there is no dependency between heat flux and heat transfer  

• Small footprint, permitting installation outside the main process building and thereby reducing installation costs

Most modern cane sugar factories have opted for falling-film tubular evaporators in sextuple and septuple configurations to further reduce exhaust steam consumption for the process. As the number of effects increases in the multiple-effect configuration, steam consumption decreases. Changing from a quadruple (4 effects) to a quintuple (5 effects) configuration reduces steam consumption by 15 %.With septuple configurations and use of mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) for the sugar house, steam consumption values as low as 24 % on cane can be achieved.  

For every tonne of steam less required for the process, half a tonne of bagasse (fuel) is saved. This can be used to generate renewable power, which is exported to the electricity grid, replacing the power generated from fossil fuels.  

Increasing the number of effects comes at a higher capital cost and it is therefore important to understand its implications for overall project feasibility. The table below shows the sugar, molasses and power produced per annum for different configurations of a factory crushing 10,000 tonnes of cane per day and operating for 180 days. Taking the quadruple FFE configuration as the basis, a discounted cash flow analysis for a period of five years is undertaken for all other configurations. For example, if a quintuple FFE configuration is chosen, the increased revenue from the cogeneration plant would allow for a greater investment of up to USD 14.5m, which is substantially more than the higher capital costs.  

Snapshots from our time at the ISSCT Congress in Cali

A BMA team attended the XXXII International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ISSCT) Congress held in Cali, Colombia from 24th to 29th August 2025. The full paper can be downloaded from the ISSCT website.