Emmanuel W.

Plaza
BS ChE V

Experiential Learning in Plant Visit at URC Passi Sugar Milling Plant

In April 1967, a group consisting of fifteen (15) Ilonggos most of them are well-known
sugar cane planters, bound themselves as incorporators to form the Passi (Iloilo) Sugar Central,
Incorporated. This led to the construction of the Passi (Iloilo) Sugar Central, Inc. The site for
milling covers an estimated area of 28 hectares in Brgy. Ulang Juan, San Enrique, province of
Iloilo. The mill began its construction in early 1968 and had completed in early 1970. As such,
the sugar mill began grinding its first crop and started its commercial operation employing 450
workers in the mill.
From crop year 1983-84, Passi (Iloilo) Sugar Central, Inc. has showed the highest volume
of production among the six sugar centrals situated in Panay area (Allied (New Frontier),
Asturias, Calinog-Lambunao, Pilar, Santos-Lopez). The highest production in five crop years
was attained during CY 1983-84 when it reached 731,446 piculs levels. The mills original cost
is $19.37 million.

Figure 1. URC PASSI 1 Production Highlight

(Source: URCSUGAR )
The URC PASSI 1 (formerly PASSI (ILOILO) SUGAR CENTRAL I) operates in a five
or six months duration in one cropping season. It begins grinding on November and ends up
usually in months of April or May, depending on the volume of the cane to be grinded. On the
average, the mill produces an estimated 6000 piculs of raw sugar (brown) daily out of the 4,500
tons cane processed per day as its equivalent. Milling operation goes on a 24 hours a day with 3
shifts in a six day period with one day shut-down in a week. The one-day shutdown is intended
for the plant maintenance operation such as equipment cleaning & repairs. During off sugar cane
season, the machines are cleaned by contractual workers on rotation basis. Torn and damaged
parts are replaced as part of their maintenance for the rest of the year in preparation for grinding
in the next milling season. At processing section, 6 chemical engineers are assigned with 3 shifts
of 2 each. The working time is: 8-4PM, 4-12AM and 12-8AM.

URC PASSI 2 (formerly PASSI (ILOILO) SUGAR CENTRAL II) is located in Barangay
Man-it, Passi City, a sugar mill producing raw with a rated capacity of 3,500 tons cane daily.
During 1st quarter of 2007, the management of Passi (Iloilo) Sugar Central decided to sell the two
(2) sugar mill, these lead to the acquisition by the Universal Robina Corporation.
It was formally turned over to the new management (URC) on October 2007 and URC
PASSI 1 started milling last October 22, 2007 and 3 weeks after URC PASS 2 starts its milling.
At the entrance of the factory, are the factory gate, covered path walk, guard post and
rank and file employees coop canteen. Before entering the plant, the visitors are required to wear
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE ) placed at the guard post. These include the protective hard
hat and light colored vest. The hat serves to protect the person from falling objects whereas the
vest is used for easy identification of the person in case of any accident. It is also required to
sign-in at the visitors log-in book so as to identify the persons coming in the plant and
consequently to log-out after visiting the plant. This is advised so as to immediately identify the
person who might be currently missing inside the plant.

At this time, it is now appropriate to discuss a summary of the process flow of raw sugar
manufacturing. The plant operates at a capacity of 4,500 tons of cane every day. Canes are
obtained from contracted suppliers where they are delivered in bundles to the plant site by means
of large trucks. These trucks pass through weigh bridge to determine their weight. After
weighing the canes, they are unloaded to the feeding table. Some of the canes are stockpiled in
the cane yard. From the feeding table in the cane yard, canes are dumped into the auxiliary cane
conveyor (ACC ) for cane preparation. In cane preparation, the canes pass thru the set of cane
knives #1 comprising of 40 blades and dumped to the main cane carrier. This carrier goes to
cane knives #2 which consists of 60 blades and unigrator. After which, the cane passes through a
cane filtrator and press where it further shredded. The shredded cane from cane preparation is
conveyed to the first mill for juice extraction. In the mill, maceration water is added consisting of
3 & 4 milk-hot water for moisturizing. The plant consists of 4 mill sets where the cane is
processed for juice extraction. The extract juice then passes thru a surge tank to weighing scale
to determine its weight. This juice is also known as bagasse which is utilized as fuel in boilers
for power generation. The plant has two JTE boilers with steam rate capacity of 60 tons/hr each.
The boilers are suspension fired, pin hole grate type. The steam produced from the boiler drives a
turbine-generator set producing 2.5 MW of electricity for power generation. The plant possesses
two 2.5 MW Turbo-Generator with a total power generation of 5MW of electricity.
After the extraction, the process proceeds to the raw production. The juice extracted from
the mills is pumped to the process house passing thru two heaters where lime is added. Lime is
added for purification purposes. A pH of 7.8-8.5 is desired as most impurities can be extracted in
this range. After heating to 220 F, the mixed juice is then pumped to the clarifiers. The waste
product of the clarifier is sent to the mud tank. . The product is forwarded to the rotary vacuum
filter to separate the components and then to the filter press and filtrate tank where lime is again
added. The product passes thru the mud press and the final product is a filter cake which
commonly used as agricultural fertilizer. The clarified juice from the clarifiers is sent to the
distribution tank. The distribution tank then distributes the juice to the two tanks where a
strainer is present. The juice is then processed in the evaporator where water is separated from
the syrup through the evaporation process. The process is of quadruple effect wherein in the juice

passes through the cell 1A-4A. During the process in 1A and 1B, the forward feed undergoes
vapor bleeding. A syrup concentration of 60-70 Brix is critically desired. To obtain such
concentration, a syrup clarifier is added. This clarifier consists of phosphoric acid (H3PO3) and
zuglar. The syrup is clarified through air flocculation. The clarified syrup then undergoes scrape
flux reprocess in the syrup tank. To process further, syrup produced from the evaporators are then
transferred to the vacuum pans which turns syrup to massecuite. Massecuite from vacuum pans
are then transferred to the centrifugal baskets for separation of molasses from sugar crystals
which are already the finished product known as the Raw Sugar. Some of the magma and
molasses are recycled back for efficient conversion to raw sugar. Three types of sugar are
produced with different Brix and Pol concentration in the process: Sugars A, B and C. These
sugars also have different color and purity with sugar A as white whereas sugars B and C as red.
The differences are necessary as they are requirements of the companies demanding for a
specific quality of sugar. Presently, the URC PASSI has two main company buyers. These are the
food manufacturing companies, Nestle and Del Monte Inc. The basket for batch sugar A and
molasses is used in the production of sugar B through a dryer. In turn, B sugar and B molasses is
utilized to produce sugar C. These processes are performed through a vertical crystallizer with a
capacity of 14, 000 ft3 cap. The raw sugar are packed as 50 kg/bag

Figure 2. URC PASSI Raw Sugar

(Source: URCSUGAR )