Industry focus
Water treatment for sugar: from juice clarification to boiler reliability
Prosep covers the sugar process across its stages — from juice clarification and evaporator scale control through to boiler and cooling system reliability, planned around the season so the mill runs when it has to.
A sugar mill is a seasonal plant that cannot afford to stop during the season. The process runs from cane to crystal through clarification, evaporation, boiling and crystallisation, and water and chemistry run alongside it the whole way: clarifying the juice, controlling scale in the evaporators, raising steam, and rejecting heat.
Scale in an evaporator and deposit in a boiler are not abstract problems in a mill; during the crush they are the difference between a season that runs and one that stops. Prosep covers the sugar process across its stages, from juice clarification and evaporator scale control through to boiler and cooling system reliability.
The process
From juice to crystal, across the mill
Clarification at the front, scale control through the evaporators, and reliable steam and cooling behind them.
Juice clarification
Coagulant and flocculant chemistry selected by jar testing produces clean clarified juice and a manageable mud at the front of the process.
Evaporator scale control
Scale on evaporator surfaces cuts heat transfer and forces more frequent cleaning during the crush. Scale control matched to the process extends the run between cleans and holds performance through the season.
Boilers & steam
Feedwater, internal chemistry and blowdown control keep the bagasse boilers available through the season; where legacy scale has accumulated, an inhibited chemical clean resets the surfaces before it starts.
Cooling & process water
Cooling circuits, condensers and general process water treated to their duty across the mill.
Planned ahead
The interventions that prevent a mid-season stop
The boiler clean, the evaporator scale programme and the clarification chemistry are completed and proven before the crush rather than improvised during it, so the treatment is in place before the load arrives — assess each stage, design to targets, then monitor and optimise through the season.
The programmes
What a mill runs on through the crush
Flocculation & clarification
Juice clarification chemistry, selected by jar test.
View serviceBoiler water treatment
Bagasse boiler feedwater, chemistry and blowdown.
View serviceBoiler acid cleaning
Resetting boiler surfaces before the crush.
View serviceCooling water treatment
Condensers and process cooling circuits.
View serviceStandards we work to
Across the whole mill the engagement is the one on how we work, with process water covered by our process water treatment capability and drinking-grade supply for the site covered by potable water treatment to SANS 241. The programme is planned around the season so the mill runs when it has to.
- DWS discharge requirements
FAQ
Sugar industry water treatment questions
Can you control scale in our evaporators?
Evaporator scale control is central to sugar mill water treatment. Scale on evaporator surfaces cuts heat transfer and forces more frequent cleaning during the crush, and a scale control programme matched to the process extends the run between cleans and holds performance through the season.
Do you treat the juice clarification stage as well as utilities?
Yes. Coagulant and flocculant chemistry for juice clarification, selected by jar testing and dosed correctly, produces clean clarified juice and manageable mud. It is treated as part of the same whole-mill programme as the boilers and cooling.
Can you prepare our boilers before the season?
Yes, and that is the right time to do it. Where legacy scale has built up, an inhibited chemical clean resets the boiler surfaces before the crush, and the ongoing boiler water treatment programme then holds them through the season, so the work is done before the mill cannot afford to stop.
How do you work around the seasonal nature of a mill?
By planning the programme to the season. The interventions that prevent a mid-season stop are completed and proven before the crush rather than improvised during it, so the mill runs when it has to and the treatment is in place before the load arrives.
Plan ahead of the next season.
The interventions that prevent a mid-season stop are done and proven before the crush. Tell us your season and we plan the programme to it.