Characterization of Levels of Automation on the Quality of Sugar Cane Juice Extraction: Case of Kenya

Quality of sugar from the industry is dependent on the appropriateness of the advanced automation technique that is employed for the extraction of sucrose concentration (brix) from the sugarcane and also, monitoring and regulation of process parameters like the amount of imbibition water, amount of suspended solids, temperature, pH and the leanness of automation technique that determines an optimum extraction. This in turn affects the cost of sugar production. Thus, the need to determine the best automation approach of attaining optimum sucrose concentrations in juice extracts. To achieve this, a comparative analysis of three different levels of automation found in Kenyan Sugar industries was carried out in a case company to assess their impact on the purity of juice extracted and hence the quality of sugar produced. It was found that, levels of automation (LoA) 6 and 5 recorded the highest brix of 96% compared to 75% recorded by level 4. Also, LoA 6 allowed adjustments to achieve improved process balance of juice brix, bagasse moisture, extraction and energy consumption in juice evaporation. Therefore, LoA 6 also called six-sigma automation should be adopted in the sugar industry for optimum sugar quality and reduced cost of production