The right approach how to design the conditioning system of a sugar silo*

In the light of the constantly growing requirements regarding efficiency, work safety and increasing capacities the design of silos and its conditioning systems demands for customer-specific and experience-based approach.

After production fresh sugar has a residual water content which can lead to agglomerations during storage. This affects the product quality, discharge and transport from the silo and endangers staff who has to remove cakings manually. Therefore it is necessary to prepare and distribute the air constantly at optimal conditions.

Time of conditioning, air quantity and humidity are the parameters to be determined simultaneously based on the type of silo, residual water content of stored sugar, size of sugar crystals, product feed-in rate and environmental conditions [1]. In the design the amount of water to be removed, air distribution in the sugar bed and temperature are considered. Depending on weather conditions the supplied air is mixed with fresh, dried, cooled or heated air to meet the needed conditions and to enable an energy-efficient operation of the plant.