An investment for the future

Most drying and cooling processes require large amounts of energy. Which is why cost and energy efficiency are top priorities for dryers from BMA. Such as the two plants we built for a beet sugar factory at Hrebinky.

The output from sugar production must be suitable for transportation and storage. That applies both to the sugar itself, and to by-products such as pressed pulp in the beet sugar process or bagasse in cane sugar production. The product must therefore be dried to a specified level of residual moisture. This value is in fact a quality factor in dryers and a major determinant of their price.

BMA is supplying two dryers to a beet sugar factory at Hrebinky, Ukraine: one for drying pressed pulp, the other for drying sugar. 

Beet pulp, of which large volumes are produced during extraction, is dried to a residual moisture of about 10 percent by a fluidised-bed steam dryer (WVT) from BMA. It is then pressed to form pellets. The WVT is an excellent investment for the factory: transportation and storage of the pressed pulp are improved, which increases its resale value.

Investing in a WVT from BMA pays off also because factories can recover up to 95 percent of the drying energy, as an in-house study has shown. BMA has excellent references, in fact, many companies rely on our dryers. 

There were two main reasons why the factory also opted for our new drum dryer for sugar. Firstly, throughput had consistently grown over the past years. And secondly, end customer demand is for free-flowing sugar that does not form lumps after a few weeks. 

The drum dryer from BMA matches both requirements. It can easily produce sugar with a residual moisture of 0.04 percent to meet market demand. And the drying throughput also matches our customer’s wishes. 

Already today, the plant is ready to meet the growing needs of tomorrow: performance of the drying system is scalable, for instance, in combination with a fluidised-bed cooler from BMA. Together they form a sophisticated model of energy efficiency.

BMA assembled the drum dryer in autumn 2017, with the WVT to follow this year. Both dryers are due to be commissioned in time for the 2018 campaign.