Business Introduction
Foam in a sugar mill is concentrated in two sections, clarification and evaporation: cane juice or molasses itself contains saponin-type foaming matter, and with the alkalinity brought by milk of lime and the impact of high-position-difference feeding, the foam inside the vessel readily climbs to the top of the tank.
Guangzhou Chemi Tech New Material Co., Ltd. integrates R&D, production and sales and has worked in the defoamer field for many years, with its headquarters in Guangzhou. On the food and sugar line, the company relies mainly on polyether and siloxane-polyether grades, balancing stability under high-temperature alkalinity with the food-safety requirements of downstream sections.
Product Advantages
First, it withstands high-temperature alkalinity and does not fail in the clarification section. In the alkaline environment brought by milk of lime the components do not readily saponify, and the foam falls back quickly once added.
Second, foam suppression holds and needs fewer top-ups in the evaporation section. Multiple-effect evaporation runs hot and holds long; the foam-suppression capacity decays slowly and the number of top-ups drops.
Third, it is odourless with low residue and does not disturb the later crystallisation. It introduces no off-odour and no insoluble matter, and neither the syrup colour nor the crystallisation process is dragged.
Fourth, it disperses well and does not hang on the tank wall. It disperses evenly once added, deposit on the tank wall and heating surface is slight, and the cleaning interval is stretched.
Note on the boundary of these effects: these behaviours are based on common cane and beet sugar-making conditions; when the sugar content of the raw material and the lime dosage differ the result changes, so please run a small-scale test before dosing into the tank.
Market Pain Points and Solutions
In sugar-mill foam control the difficulty is that the foaming source comes from the raw material, the alkaline high temperature decays the activity, and the downstream food-safety requirement is strict; these three pull at one another.
Pain point one: the raw material carries foaming matter of its own. Saponin-type components make the foam inherently abundant, and incomplete clarification also carries impurities into the scum. The approach is to choose a system with strong foam suppression and a saving dosage.
Pain point two: high-temperature alkalinity decays the defoamer. Multiple-effect evaporation runs hot and ordinary components fail quickly. The approach is to work back to the tolerance grade from the temperature and the alkalinity.
Pain point three: residue affects the colour value and the crystallisation. Insoluble matter and off-odour enter the syrup and the colour value fluctuates with them. The approach is to treat low residue as a hard indicator.
The way this line is served is a three-step verification method: first take on-site sugar juice to reproduce the foam and the alkalinity, then run a small-scale test with heat, and finally settle the grade and the point of addition.
Typical Operating Conditions and Verification
The clarification section usually runs at sixty to eighty degrees Celsius with a mildly alkaline pH; the first effect of multiple-effect evaporation runs hotter and the sugar juice holds longer inside the vessel; the foam peak mostly appears in the early part of the crushing season and at the first evaporation effect.
There are four signals to watch: foam in the clarifier reaching the overflow outlet; an unsteady level-gauge reading in the evaporator; faster scaling on the heating surface; and a wider swing in the syrup colour value. If two of them are hit, a small-scale test should be arranged.
For comparison data from the same sugar source and the same process, the technical team holds ready on-site cases that can be looked into further.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: Why not just hold the line with a cheap ordinary defoamer in a sugar mill?
An ordinary product decays quickly under alkaline high temperature, the cost is not low once the dosage goes up, and the residue may still be carried into the syrup and affect the colour value and later crystallisation.
Q2: Will the defoamer bring in off-odour or affect food-safety indicators?
That depends on the specific grade and the dosage. It is advisable to give priority to a type usable in food applications and to take third-party testing and small-scale test results as the standard rather than a supplier's description alone.
Q3: When replacing an imported product with a domestic one, from which step should a sugar mill start?
Start with a single-point replacement in the clarification section, record the original dosage and the foam level as a baseline, reproduce the equivalence, and only then extend to the evaporation section; completing the switch in two steps is steadier.