France sugar plant realizes efficiencies with Solex cooler
In late 2020, Cristal Union had a decision to make. The company's sugar beet plant in Bazancourt, France was operating a vertical disk cooler that was nearing end of life. The agro-industrial co-operative group could either swap out the unit with another direct-contact cooler, or look at other options — namely an indirect method that uses thermal conduction instead of convection.
Having previously worked with Solex Thermal Science at other plants in France, Cristal Union decided to modernize, resulting in the installation of a vertical plate-based moving bed heat exchanger (MBHE) in spring 2021.
More recently, this case study was picked up in the International Sugar Journal, where Jean-Marc Reichling, Global Sales Director at Solex, shared details of the unit that was installed. Some of the topics covered included:
Design considerations: For example, the Bazancourt installation included a closed-loop circuit for the cooling water, thereby eliminating the need for external water supply.
Process conditions: Solex needed to cool the sugar to a consistent temperature of 30°C. So a water temperature control module was added that allowed plant operators to adjust this temperature, when necessary.
Successes: A dry cooler was added with the chiller to minimize energy consumption. So that when the ambient air dropped below 15°C during the sugar campaign, only the dry cooler would operate; between 15 C to 28°C and both the dry cooler and chiller would work, and; at temperatures above 28°C, only the chiller would operate.
Learn more by downloading a pdf version of the full story in the International Sugar Journal.
This entry was last updated on 2022-4-11
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