Applications to Date

The list below gives a brief illustration of some of the applications in which SugarCaneModel has been used to assist with decision-making since January 2011, in countries and regions including India, Colombia, the US, Peru, Fiji, Philippines, Egypt, El Salvador, China, South Korea and the Gulf states.

•    Assessments of the potential and likely profitability of installing new sugar refineries, both autonomous and white-end, and liquid sugar plants.
•    Assessment of the potential benefits to a national economy of improvements and expansion of its sugar industry, including changes to plantation and factory operations, addition of cogeneration and distilleries, and receipt of carbon credits and fairtrade premiums.
•    Assessments of the potential benefits of upgrading and expanding existing sugar factories and cogeneration facilities.
•    Providing a route map for a major US refinery to achieve world-class status, and highlighting the financial benefits.
•    Estimations of ranges of operating costs (OPEX) for refineries and liquid sugar plants, highlighting the levels of uncertainty in the estimations, and ranking the risks and opportunities.
•    Evaluation of the potential benefits of recovery of cane trash as a supplementary boiler fuel.
•    General comparisons between refinery processes, such as phosphatation vs. carbonatation or ion exchange vs. carbon, highlighting the key drivers behind the choice of process and potential scenarios favouring each option.
•    Selection of the optimum process configuration for specific refinery and liquid sugar projects.
•    Comparison of alternative methods of producing liquid sugar in existing factories and refineries, and identification of the optimum solution.
•    Modelling of alternative process schemes for achieving Zero Liquid Discharge in autonomous refineries.
•    Comparison, on an economic and environmental basis, of potential options for refinery condensing in location where water is scarce, and recommendation of the optimum solution.
•    Economic comparison of various boiling schemes in white-end and autonomous refineries.
•    Detailed assessment of the water usage and effluent generation for a liquid sugar process, and identification and ranking of process improvements to reduce water and effluent.
•    Assessment of the potential benefits of installing syrup clarification into sugar factories.
•    Providing a generalised view of the viability of producing liquid sugar in a white-end environment, including highlighting the key drivers and potential favourable scenarios.
•    Analysis of the sensitivity of plant performance and economics to external and internal drivers such as changes in feed quality or how well the plant is operated.
•    Equipment sizing for refinery and liquid sugar processes.

Potential Applications

SugarCaneModel has the potential to assist any decision-maker with an interest in sugar cane as a feedstock, such as plantation owners, millers, refiners, technology vendors, biofuels companies, government departments, industry associations, and academics. The list below is intended to give a flavour of the range of decisions and questions that SugarCaneModel could potentially assist with:

•    Will autonomous sugar refineries remain viable under likely long-term future conditions?
•    Which processes are most sensitive to changes in energy prices?
•    What price would oil have to reach for a sugar cane biorefinery to be economically viable?
•    For the plantation owner, what is the best portfolio of processes and products to minimise future risk to profitability?
•    What is the probability that future increases in labour costs will make a process economically unviable, and should increased automation be considered?
•    Will sugar cane be more valuable in future for its fibre content than its sucrose?
•    Which processes are most sensitive to changes in the cost of water and to mitigate this risk, should more focus be put into water recovery?
•    Does refined granulated sugar have a future? Or is it more economically viable long-term to produce liquid sugar for industrial users, and persuade domestic users to accept lower-quality refined sugar?
•    Under what conditions would it be more profitable for bagasse to be diverted for cellulosic ethanol production instead of electricity generation?
•    At what oil price is the optimum solution to divert all sugar to an ethanol plant? What is the optimum solution to minimise the level of exposure to oil prices?
•    How would removal of tariffs affect the direction of the industry?
•    How will potential future restrictions in effluent discharges affect effluent treatment plant specification?
•    Which processes and products are most at risk should environmental discharges be more heavily restricted?
•    Under what conditions would biogas recovery from effluents be profitable?
•    Between medium invert syrup and liquid sucrose, which has the most long-term potential for industrial sugar consumers?
•    How would rising oil prices affect the optimum use of sugar cane?
•    Are the overall economics of a plant sensitive to the performance of a particular process? Where should development work be focussed in order to reduce overall risk?
•    Which established processes offer most potential for optimisation?

The above lists are not exhaustive and are intended to be indicative of kind of areas in which SugarCaneModel could be used. SugarCaneModel is available for bespoke modelling of any relevant application. Please contact [email protected] with any enquiries.