Risvan Kuswurj

By :

By R.K Goyal, Rajesh Khosla, Pravin Goel
Jindal Stainless Limited

Corrosion of sugar manufacturing equipment has been among the most important concern of the plant operation in the sugar industry. Stainless steel has emerged as the most suitable material for overcoming most of the problems associated with the sugar industry. This paper is an attempt to explore the various application in the industry with a view to minimizing the life cycle costs for the industry.

What are Stainless Steels
Stainless steels grades are essentially alloys of iron with more than 11% of Chromium These grades may contain additional elements like nickel, manganese, carbon, nitrogen, silicon, etc. They can further be modified for special purposes by addition of molybdenum, titanium, niobium, silicon, sulphur, etc. A wide range of these grades have been developed based on specific requirements. These are classified into following categories based on their microstructure:

Corrosion in Sugar Industry
Most of the equipment is made in Sugar industry from Mild steel. This has resulted in the corrosion becoming a major factor to be addressed in the Sugar industry. Color in sugar due to Iron Oxide: In India, plantation white sugar is manufactured, where, generally no further refining is carried out. Therefore it is important to minimize color imparting impurities (corrosion) in the process equipment. It is estimated that about 20-25 kg equivalent of Fe2O3 is mixed in the juice for every 1000 tones of Cane processed through sulphitation process. (Source: P Honig, Principles of Sugar Technology Part-I). Due to this corrosion, the color of juice darkens resulting in loss of whiteness.

Why use Stainless Steel:
Stainless Steel not only offers higher resistance to corrosion than conventional material like Mild Steel, Cast Iron, Brass, etc. but also is better in terms of strength and properties like abrasion resistance, etc. Some of the reasons why stainless steel is the better material are as follows:

1. Low / Negligibe Corrosion

2. Strength

3. Low Corrosion Allowance

4. Low Maintenance

5. Superioer Hygiene

6. Better Heat Transfer

For full article see links bellow :

http://www.jindalstainless.com/Stainless-Steel-for-Sugar-Industry-A-lifecycle-perspective1.pdf

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