1.

Cane Supply & cane yard

1.1. Cane supply

Methods of cane harvesting and transport

In Tongaat Hulett - Aucareira de Moambique SA the harvesting method is burning,

followed by cutting and loading into trailers of tractor or truck by backhoe. The practice of
burning the cane is an effective way to perform manual harvesting system. Some advantages
of burning are:

Higher payload and therefore cheaper transport of cane

Processing cane clean
A cheap way of removing trash
Fight against diseases and pests
Promote new growth from the remain stalks of the ground

Some disadvantages are:

Increase soil erosion

Decrease extraction by 0.4%
Poor payload if trash is not done well

Cane quality

Table below illustrates the most cane varieties types of cane used in Tongaat Hulett
Aucareira de Moambique SA with their characteristics.

Type Purity Fibre content Non- Fibre: Sucrose Cane yield

sucrose ratio
N19 High Moderate Low Low Low to moderate
N25 High Very low Low Low High
N27 Moderate to Moderate to Low Low to moderate High
high high
Table 1: Cane quality
 Variety Pol % Brix % Purity Fibre
N14 12,71 15,29 85,60 13,72
N19 14,22 15,58 83,13 12,89
N21 13.10 15,15 91,27 14,23
N23 12,90 15,28 86,47 13,18
N25 12,30 13,65 84,42 13,38
N27 13,26 15,10 90,11 13,20
Table 2: Average of historical data from 2013

Variety Pol % Brix % Purity Fibre

N14 14,32 15,30 93,59 14,76
N19 14,20 15,60 91,03 13,00
N21 12,75 15,22 83,77 14,10
N23 12,80 15,29 83,71 12,79
N25 12.99 13,73 94,61 13,30
N27 13,26 15,46 85,77 13,22
Table 3: Average of historical data from 2014

Variety Pol % Brix % Purity Fibre

N14 14,36 15,24 88,51 15,96
N19 14,19 15,74 90,15 12,93
N21 12,95 15,18 85,25 14,18
N23 12,86 15,20 84,59 13,00
N25 12,14 13,70 86,11 13,28
N27 13,10 15,26 85,82 13,14
Table 4: Average of historical data from 2015

The objective to grow many varieties is to get higher pol to make sugar and fibre enough for
produce steam on boilers. With this average of historical data, compare in terms of pol and
fibre the option to select variety follow this sequence: N14, N27, N19, N25, N23 and N21.
Deterioration and losses due to delays to process after burning

Once sugarcane is cut it is subject to deterioration largely due to the activity of

microorganisms. This results in the loss of sucrose inversion to form glucose and fructose.
The speed of sucrose inversion is a function of time and temperature, in order to control the
deterioration, a burn to crush delay must be kept below 50hours. Mafambisse BTC target is
48 hours and the actual until 31 July is 49.1 hours. Huge improvement was observed since the
haulage of Lamego cane was shifted from rail to road in 2016/17 season.

Sampling and evaluation of cane

The method of evaluation cane used is from overall analysis in terms of pol, fibre and Brix.
This gives an indication of how much sugar is present in the cane delivered.

Cane payment system

For cane payment system in Tongaat Hulett SA is used Estimated Recoverable Crystal (ERC)
formula:

ERC % aS bN cF

Where :
S = Sucrose% cane
N = Non - sucrose % cane
F = Fibre% cane
a = Undetermi ned loss sucrose from sugar production
b = Loss of sucrose from sugar production per unit of N
c = Loss of sucrose from sugar production per unit of F

This formula is applied for normal out growers and Muda grower a payment is done through
tonnage as it is under leasing process.

1.2. Cane preparation

The devices are used in Tongaat Hulett - Aucareira de Moambique SA to prepare cane for
milling is knives and shredder.
The knives reduce the length; there are two types primary and secondary knives:
 Primary knives have42 knives with 15 Kg each, 800 kW of power,737 RPM and 6600
V
Secondary knives have80 knives with 15 Kg each, 375 kW of power and 585 RPM
and 6600V
The shredder typically works like knives; with differences in the instruments work he uses
hammers of 15 kg each in order to shred the cane exposing the cells to facilitate the
extraction process and has 160 hammers, 1800 kW of power, speed of 988 RPM and 6600 V.

Objectives of cane preparation

Reduce de size of the pieces to a size suitable for handling in the extraction process
To rupture all the plant fibre cell in the cane as possible to facilitate extraction of
sugar through squeezing with application of imbibition water.

Assessment of preparation

From the objectives of cane preparation cannot be achieved perfectly, it can be seen by
measuring the Preparation Index (PI) achieves between 90 and 92 % rupture cells. Below 90
becomes mush and above 92 becomes porridge.
Year P. I Extraction
2013 90.77 95.94
2014 90.30 95.70
2015 91.30 96.57
Table 5: relates the PI and extraction (historical data)

In the table above PI and extraction increasefrom 2014 to 2015, this show a fibre has
contributed when analyzed in cane quality table data. This illustrate fibre is the factor
important on preparation stage and extraction.

Factors affecting PI

Wear on hammers and knives

Number of knives and hammers fitted to the rotor
Fibre content of the cane
To solve those problems should be adjusted washboard till zero clearance or replaceand
verify wear on hammers. This schedule of setting the washboard and the changing of knives
and hammers get in action in 3 weeks after stop day during (planned maintenance) or when
the factory is stopped due no cane or process full.

The profile of washboard

1.3. Cane Control feed

Control of cane in yard
A cane yard has followed operation: weighing and offloading cane on factory.
Control of cane feed

To offload cane on the feeder table are installed spiller next from the table. When the trucks
pass from weighbridge the operator register weights of truck with cane and after offloading
on the table, the truck pass again to register without cane to obtain how much cane was
delivered.

Control of crushing rates

The crushing rate is controlled by the weighbridge. To regulate the crush rate accordable the
target we need is made by speed of turbine of number 1 mill in connection with chute level
who is responsible to increase or decrease speed of conveyors. The capacity installed is 186
ton/h calculated according (Hugot, 1969):
0.8 * c * n * (1 0.06 * n * D) * D 2 * L * N
A
f
A Mill capacity
n number of rotation rpm
D Diameter of roll (m)
N number of rollers on tan dem
f fiber content
c coefficient of preparation
L Length of roll
Actual crush rate is 145 ton/h and it is caused by the follow factors:
In Agriculture:
Wet fields
No cane cutters on end of months
Mist
EN6 road repair

Back End:

High levels of syrups, clear juice and mixed juice due to non pol recirculation and
gummy massecuite
Cane tracking and sampling

This package has been designed as a total solution for tracking cane deliveries from the point
where the cane enters the factory through the processing stage, to the online analysis that
determines the product quality. The application consists of both hardware and software
components, and can be provided as a standalone system, or can be integrated with the
existing systems. But in Tongaat Hulett Aucareira de Moambique SA are not used this
system and this can take place on the weighbridge for automatic cane analysis and juice
analysis systems are currently supported. These include the Foss near Infrared Analysis
Systems (CAS, JAS and InfraCarna) as well as batch systems based on automatic POL and
Brix analysis. All of these results are stored in the Cane Analysis Database.

1.4. Knives and shredder

Knives may be driven by two different sources of power:

Electric Motor
Steam Turbine

Under the drive transmission point of view differs from:

Drive by belt
The direct drive by coupling

In Tongaat Hulett Aucareira de Moambique SA knives are driven by electric motors. This
drive is carried out by induction motors with coils of rotor rings with and without lifting
brushes. Transmission is by direct drive coupling knives are directly connected to the motor
shaft.

Number of Knifes Power (KW) Speed (RPM) Voltage (V)

Primary Knifes 42 800 737 6600
Secondary Knifes 80 375 585 6600
Shredder 160 1800 988 6600
Table 6: Cane preparation devices
Control philosophy of devices

All devices incorporate interlocks which will prevent them from running for reasons such
as the following:
Conveyors ahead tripped
A mill as tripped
Cane knives, drum or shredder not running
All conveyors operate in a linked cascade system, so that the speed up and low down
together
The speed of shredder and all knifes sets are measured, and if any one of them slows
down due to overloading the speed of conveyors ahead are reduced
For protection all devices all trip and are used hydraulic system -control oil flow and
electric system- Amperage.