Level measurement of condensate in a sugar refinery

The company specialises in the primary processing of beet root into sugar. Sugar refineries run separation processes to isolate the sugar from the other components of the beet root. This separation is made up of a series of steps including reception, washing, extraction by diffuser, purification and filtration, evaporation and crystallisation, drying and packaging.

In the manufacturing process, the syrup is concentrated through evaporation under vacuum. The condensate are recovered in a return circuit. Its level must be regulated so the created vacuum is not disturbed. In the past, the customer had used magnetic bypass level indicators from a competitor to measure condensate levels. Given the effect of the process conditions on the existing instrumentation, the customer had to regularly replace the floats due to deformation and holes. The safety of the process could thus no longer be guaranteed.

KROHNE recommended replacing the floats with 9 OPTIFLEX 2200 F level transmitters featuring coaxial sensors with a 22 mm / 0.87" diameter, for a total height of 1200 mm / 47.2 inch. The customer kept the chambers of the level transmitters and simply removed the floats and the magnetic components. Thanks to their measurement responsiveness, the OPTIFLEX 2200 F helped avoid recurring problems when starting up the sugar refinery. KROHNE recommended coaxial sensors in order to reduce dead zones, thus securing the installation across a broader measuring range than possible with the float technology.

The customer has overcome the mechanical constraints associated with floats. By installing the OPTIFLEX 2200 F guided radar level transmitters, the customer obtained more accurate readings while simultaneously increasing the measuring range. The remote version permits local readings, making it easy for the operator to monitor the condensate. In addition, the transmitters could be easily installed on top of the existing bypass chambers.