4. Research and Development

Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Public Company (KSL) is well aware of
production technology in Sugar Mill, and, therefore, has been
continuously studying the new production technology and energy saving
system, as well as applying its within KSL’s sugar mills. The aim is to
improve sugarcane in the term of efficiency and quality. The Research
and Development Projects in 2006 are as follows:

1. “Automatic Pan Sugar Boiling System Installation” Project : Boiling
Pan Sugar is almost the final process in sugarcane production. Raw sugar
is not decolorized and obtained on evaporation of clarified sugarcane
juice. Generally, raw sugar is exported to Boiling Pan. The boiling is
done using steam. The juice is boiled until the syrup thickens and
crystallizes.

Purposes of raw sugar boiling include:

-   To obtain standard sized sugar crystals

-   To obtain standard sweetness

-   To obtain standard colors

-   To obtain standard effectiveness and efficiency

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Most sugar mills depend on skilled and experienced workers to achieve
the effects mentioned above. Inevitably, there are some difficulties
resulted by the dependency on those workers, such as resigning,
retiring, and inconsistency in performance of the workers. For
sustainable solution, KSL’s sugar mills, thus, have utilized the
automatic pan sugar boiling system in their sugarcane production period
2006/2007. The conductivity programmer ensures accuracy, ease of use,
and easy maintenance at reasonably cost. The period for completion of
the project was from June 2006 to November 2006. The total cost is Baht
13 million. The expected outcomes are:

-   Increasing sugar production capacity

-   Reducing sugar boiling time

-   Reducing the steam energy consumption

-   Ensuring consistency in boiling system

-   Decreasing the dependency on workers and relieving the effect of
    skilled labor shortage

2. “Improving Sugarcane Juice Clarification” Project : Sugarcane juice
clarifying is part of the extraction process. The juice crushed from the
cane contains impurities including suspended matters, insoluble matters,
and non-sugar soluble matters. So the cane juice is cleaned up before
boiling in order to make sure that the syrup can go onto the
crystal-making step without anymore cleaning.

Sugarcane juice clarification involves:

-   Combining slaked lime solution with sugarcane juice

-   Allowing the impurities to settle in multi-tray clarifier tanks

-   Controlling the system by human

With the traditional clarification system, the cane juice is not
consistently clear, and the clarity depends heavily on workers’ care.
Sediments, small cane fibers, and green extracts remaining lower
effectiveness of the boiling pan and quality of the sugar. It takes more
times to let impurities settle in multi-tray clarifier tanks;
consequently, there is loss caused by sugar inversion.

The improved clarification system includes:

-   Combining lime saccharine with cane juice to increase the efficacy
    of slaked lime solution and reduce the usage of the slaked lime
    solution

-   Automatic control system

-   Tray-less clarifier tanks where it takes efficiency times to let
    impurities settle out

KSL’s sugar mills, thus, have utilized the new clarification system in
their sugarcane production period 2006/2007. The period for completion
of the project was from July 2006 to November 2006. The total cost is
Baht 14 million. The expected outcomes are:

-   The clarity of sugarcane juice improved

-   Less usage of slaked lime

-   The clarity of cane juice is consistent.

-   Decreased loss from sugar inversion allows increased sugar
    production capacity