Reasoning the use of qualitative indicators in energy efficient and environmental friendly automated process control systems of sugar production
Abstract
The article considers questions of efficiency increase for a sugar industry and the competitiveness of sugar mills in Ukraine. The analysis of the regulatory and legislative framework on the regulation of the sugar mills operation showed an increase in attention to the quality of sugar. A comparison of the Ukrainian regulatory framework and the technical and quality requirements applied in the leading countries - producers of sugar products is made. The issues faced by the engineering services that ensure the functioning of the production processes are identified. On the basis of the analysis, we identified the sections of sugar production with the greatest influence on the qualitative indicators. The tools used in these sections and their impact on the quality of sugar are discussed. It is determined that the quality of the obtained products is significantly influenced by the inefficient operation of the evaporation department.
The reasons and circumstances causing inefficient operation of sugar mills with low quality of the products are considered. In particular, we identified inconsistencies in the sugar mill evaporation department operation, which result in an increase in the evaporation duration. And it in turn leads to an increase in the color of sugar. Thus, there is a clear correlation between the ensuring high quality of sugar and the evaporation process duration, and therefore the efficiency of energy consumption at the plants. On the other hand energy efficiency causes the reduction of environmental impact as a result of energy savings and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Effective regulation of the operation at all departments of a sugar plant through the improvement of automated process control systems can comprehensively optimize the production, which will improve the quality of the products to the international requirements, reduce energy consumption and minimize environmental impact.
The influence of technological (temperature, pressure, etc.), technical parameters of the evaporation (heating surface, volumes of evaporators, scale, etc.), and qualitative indicators (dry matter, alkalinity, quality, turbidity, colour, etc.) on the quality of the products are shown. It is analyzed how the qualitative and quantitative indicators of the evaporation affect the quality of the products.
Using the data about the operation of Ukrainian sugar mills in recent years where engineering services had been concerned with obtaining high quality products, we determined the most effective ways to improve the quality of sugar. These main ways are: optimization of the operating conditions at juice evaporators; the use of modern chemical additives to sugar solutions (juice and syrup); the use of automated prosess control systems based on the effective mathematical and software.
The comparative analysis of the impact of technological measures to improve the quality indicators that were monitored at the inlet and outlet of the evaporators has become the basis for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of the proposed ways. The level of of operating cost reduction for energy resources has been determined under the condition of sugar juice evaporation optimization to maintain the minimum required duration of the technological stage. Under these conditions, there is a significant decrease in the increase in the colour of the juice. We proposed a set of measures to optimize the process of sugar producing with qualitative parameters which are competitive at the sugar market.
