Re-installation with additional task
After the Saint Louis Sucre sugar factory at Guignicourt had closed down, its BMA extraction plant of 2009 was disassembled and transported to the Roye sugar factory. At the beginning of 2012, BMA was commissioned to re-install theextraction tower and the countercurrent cossette mixer at Roye. At the same time, the height of the tower was to be increased and the drive system converted to raise the nominal capacity of the extraction plant from 8,000 to 9,200 t/d.
With the increased extraction length, the draught from the extraction tower could be reduced to 103 % o.b. This results in substantial energy savings and consequently much lower CO2 emissions.
New drive technology for higher capacity
After disassembly of the original extraction plant, the bull gear had to be scrapped and was therefore not available for re-installation. Since the envisaged capacity increase also made it necessary to install additional drives, Saint Louis Sucre opted for a radical solution: the complete drive would be replaced by amodern version with segmented, module-20 bull gear and six new pinion carriers and planetary gears. In addition to this mechanical drive conversion, BMA would also renew the electrical system with the known and proven master-follower control system.
Concept successfully implemented
Not least because of the space restrictions at Roye, Saint Louis Sucre‘s plan was to first reinstall and convert the extraction tower, starting in July 2012. After the subsequent installation of the CCC mixer, the plant was inspected for acceptance in April 2013. In August 2013, the master-follower control system for the tower drive
was tested and put into service, and one month later, BMA staff could successfully commission the complete extraction plant. Plant start-up, for which the sugar factory‘s competent staff and BMA‘s experts worked very closely together, proceeded without any problems and to the absolute satisfaction of Saint Louis Sucre.
Hartmut Stolte
BMA AG
hartmut.stolte@bma-de.com
Thomas Freier
BMA AG
engineering@bma-de.com