Laser technology guides Skeldon sugar project
By Clifford Stanley
Guyana Chronicle
February 11, 2007
A TOP official with the Skeldon Sugar Modernization Project (SSMP) has painted a futuristic picture of the technologically advanced equipment which will be in use when the G$22 billion project is completed early next year.
Mr. Paul Hough, of Booker Tate Limited United Kingdom, Project Director, said mechanization of harvesting and complete automation of the sugar production process are two main elements of the leap of sugar production at Skeldon into the 21st century.
In the project, cultivation at Skeldon will be increased three-fold, moving from 5,000 hectares to 15,000 hectares, and there will be increased sugar production from forty thousand tonnes to one hundred and fifteen thousand tonnes per year, he told the Sunday Chronicle.
Mechanization in harvesting will involve the use of machines to cut canes and load them onto tractor/trailers and punts for transport to the factory.
Referring to the field expansion, Hough said it would not be possible to find enough cane cutters to harvest this large area by hand, so the additional ten thousand hectares are being specially prepared for harvesting by machines.
The Project Director said land preparation is being done with machines using laser guided equipment to create very accurate sloping beds which will allow easy access to machines at harvest time.
He was quick to add, though, that this would not mean that there will be a discontinuation of manual harvesting and explained that it will co-exist with mechanical harvesting, particularly on the original five thousand acres of the estate where the beds were not designed for access by machines.
Hough said the estate already utilizes a semi mechanical harvesting option in which the cane is cut manually and dropped on the ground to be picked up by machines. Such an arrangement may be used on the new lands in parallel with the fully mechanized option.
Private farmers are expected to produce between 25 and 30% of the 1.1 million tonnes of cane to be used in the new factory and will do their own harvesting.
The operations in the factory will be fully automated with extraction of sugar being done by the modern process of diffusion rather than mechanical grinding with a recovery rate in excess of one ton sugar from ten tons of cane and far higher than that obtainable from any of the other factories in operation.
Hough said diffusion involves, among other things, putting the cane into a long slow moving liquid bath during which the all the sucrose is extracted into liquid form.
Continuation of this modern process through other stages will result in production of a high sucrose content product, unlike anything being currently produced, he said. Computers will direct the operations of high efficiency sugar boilers.
Hough said the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) produces a very high quality of raw sugar at the moment but stressed that the Very High Pol (VHP) to be produced at Skeldon will be far superior to anything being produced locally at the moment.
The VHP is in high demand in regional and international markets and commands premium prices, he added.
The factory will be able to produce eight hundred and forty tons of sugar per day at 8 cents US per pound and will help reduce the national average cost of production to about eleven and a half cents per pound.
The Co-generation Project, another hi-tech aspect of the Skeldon modernization programme, consists of the installation of a bagasse-powered cogeneration plant to allow the simultaneous production of electrical power for internal needs and for sale of excess power to the Guyana Power and Light grid in East Berbice.
Under this aspect of the Skeldon project, surplus electricity will be generated at an average of 10 MW of electricity, delivering about 77 GWh per year to the regional grid on a firm power, year-round basis, Hough said.
In addition to the export, 58.8 GWh per year will be produced for internal use at the sugar mill.
Hough said bagasse (waste from sugar) cogeneration at Skeldon will generate emission reductions of Green House gases which reduce global warming and the estate will receive financial rewards under the Clean Development Mechanism established by the United Nations for such projects.
Construction of the sugar factory and cogeneration plant at Skeldon is being executed by China National Technology Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC).
GUYSUCO and the CNTIC signed the agreement for the project on June 22, 2004 at a cost of US$110M.
Hough emphasized that all staff at the two state-of-the-art entities will have to be retrained so that they can operate and maintain the highly advanced technology of the plants at the levels of efficiency required for commercial success.
He added that the old Skeldon Estate will be dismantled and parts which can be used by other sites such as Albion, Blairmont, or Uitvlugt, will be sent there, and others which are obsolete will be scrapped.
The SSMP is part of a strategic plan for sugar adopted by GUYSUCO in 1998 aimed at production of 450,000 tonnes/annum, electricity generation for the national grid, increased cane supply from private farmers, new/rehabilitated factories, and cost reduction to US$0.12/pound.
Funding for the project is being provided by the World Bank, the Exim Bank of China and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).