PG Patil, RA Chandgude and SM Rao
Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune, Maharashtra, India
The profits of a sugar plant can be improved by reducing the sugar/energy losses, equipment downtime, and optimum performance of machinery. This can be achieved by regular monitoring of performance and utility parameters. The performance monitoring of sugar mill equipment parameters should trigger immediate corrective actions, but relying solely on manpower for regular monitoring of these parameters is very challenging. Many sugar mills operate with Distributed Control Systems (DCS) to monitor various sections of the sugar mill. The technical staff typically take corrective actions only after verifying previous records in the manual control room. A Remote Monitoring and Advisory System (RMAS) was developed for real-time remote monitoring of sugar plant data, assessing the utility parameters such as power, steam, water and bagasse based on crushing rate and performance parameters such as preparatory index, reduced mill extraction, bagasse pol, moisture in bagasse, recovery gain. The system generates alerts when process parameters deviate, enabling manual or automatic corrective actions for optimal operation. RMAS helps with analytics, asset performance, predictive maintenance, and prescriptive maintenance, and provides accurate production and commercial status updates remotely to management. The RMAS data was collected from DCS systems, field instruments, laboratory, and electrical panels through a SCADA pack. It is connected to the server-grade computer, where the data has been collected, processed, and transmitted through firewall-established secured internet connectivity for monitoring parameters remotely by laptop, or mobile. RMAS helps in reducing human errors, minimizing stoppages from approximately 10% to less than 5%, and reduced sugar loss in bagasse as well as press mud and final molasses. Management can be alerted about plant operation and performance.