Process of Sugar making:
Mardan Sugar Mill and distillary is one of the oldest sugar mills in Pakistan. It is located on the main Malakand road in Mardan. Though living in Mardan and passing daily on that road, still never get a chance to visit inside the mill area. Finally in December 2009 my family and I decided to visit the mill area and to watch sugar making process. One of our acquaintances named Mr. Tahir Ahmad (Mechanical Engineer in Mardan Sugar Mill) has guided me through out the process of sugar making.
SUGARCANE STORAGE:
Process of Sugarcane pushing into conveyor belt and then leading it towards different crushing procedures :
Cane are pushed to conveyor, which are passed through seven rollers, water is sprayed to get maximum juice and dry bagasse are separated, which is used as a fuel.
In boiler steam is generated which is used in powerhouse.
Later on, pure juice are chemically treated to get soft and clean color.
It is then transferred to evaporators, where it is boiled under vacuum and water is minimized:
The stuff is transferred to pan, to obtain sugar crystal:
Then the stuff is transferred to centrifugal machines, where molasses is separated and sugar is obtained.
Sugar is passed in conveyor belt to weighing machine and then bagged and store:
This year, as we all know in Pakistan Sugar is not available easily and at fixed cost. That’s why even in sugar mill; the process of sugar making was very slow. The farmers are supplying a very less amount of sugarcane to the mill as compared to the earlier years; more over the cane was not looking very healthy. According to the farmers of sugarcane, they will make (GUR) by their own traditional method instead to supply sugarcane to mill. As there is already very shortage of sugar and even GUR is selling now a days on high prices. Before GUR was used by the people who used to be economically not very strong. But now with sugar shortage, GUR prices increases too so farmers prefer to make GUR instead to supply to mill. Next i would share the traditional method of GUR making in the typical rural surroundings.
Very informative feature on sugar making process...it deserved to be published in any magazine or a newspaper...i think you have spent 5 to 6 hours inside the mill to get information about sugar making process and take some good pictures..
ReplyDeleteI think farmers are right when they don't supply sugarcane to these mills because sugar mills are mainly responsible for creating artificial sugar shortage in the market which has resulted in such a huge increase in sugar price...
Looking forward for Gur Making process as well.
Sugar Technology International Texas USA. Sugar industry, incredibly, insists that once you look at the research, no expert says that sugar leads to any disease, even obesity.
ReplyDeleterefining of sugar