Research Programme Overview

The South African sugar industry, a strategically important agro-processing industry in South Africa, is one of the world’s low cost producers. However, in common with many other similar industries, it is a mature industry, showing signs of decline and it is facing a changing and increasingly competitive marketplace for diverse reasons, including rising production costs (cane and factory), loss of skills, taxes on sugar-containing beverages and dumped cheap imported sugar. It has become clear that for the industry to remain competitive and sustainable into the future, breakthrough and even disruptive technologies will be required to create the necessary step change. It is understood that this can be achieved by:

1. Radically reducing the costs of production and improving the profitability of producing sugar by using novel processing technologies and strategies. This includes process optimisation and improving energy efficiency to reduce the “loss” of potential value. To help achieve this, the SMRI has identified the potential of so-called Industry 4.0 technologies and systems to enhance the value of the data available to the sugar factories, which is under-valued and under-utilised at present in terms of relevant real-time insights and operational decision-making. The SMRI has recently succeeded in attracting government and industry funding to embark upon a project dubbed “Sugar Factory 4.0” to improve the value and utility of sugar factory data (see STEP-SF4.0 Programme).
2. Incorporating a strategy of diversification and beneficiation by creating new revenue streams (such as bioenergy and biochemical products) through adoption of an integrated Biorefinery approach, in which biomass feedstocks are fully utilised​ in an integrated manner to produce chemicals and bioenergy at least cost in a sustainable manner. Indeed, the SMRI has been at the forefront of driving this initiative within the South African sugarcane industry for many years and has received substantial government and industry funding in support of such R&D initiatives (see STEP-Bio Programme).

In addition to the two public-private partnership-funded Programmes mentioned above, the SMRI continues to undertake member-funded research within its Research Programme, principally in the area of developing technologies and tools to improve unit operations and providing insights as to how to reduce sugar losses and improve recoveries. The specific projects on the current Research Programme are diverse in nature, but all are directed to improving factory profitability through the use of novel technologies or techniques to address long-standing and well-known limitations and problems in sugarcane processing. 

The SMRI’s Research Programme is revised annually and is approved by the institute’s Advisory Research Committee, which comprises representatives from all South African sugar milling companies, the South African Sugarcane Research Institute, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Universities, including the two SMRI Sugarcane Biorefinery Research Chairs. The various projects are guided and overseen by project steering committees, comprised of industry representatives and other subject matter experts.

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​The following are current projects on the Research Programme (click on list on left for further details) :

• Colour​ Characterisation – exploration of techniques for rapid identification of types of colour in sugar process streams for improved colour control
  
• Continuous Seed Preparation System (TachyX) – development of a system for continuous preparation of sucrose seed crystals for pan boiling
  
• Dynamic Modelling of a Diffuser – creating a model to simulate dynamic behaviour of a diffuser to better understand how to improve performance
  
• Microbial Diversity Profiling​ – identification of gum-producing bacteria in sugarcane and sugar factory process streams
  
• NIRS Decision-Support Toolkits – development of NIRS-based decision-support toolkits for identifying and quantifying factory sucrose losses
  
• NIRS For Raw House Factory Products – the SMRI Near Infrared Spectroscopy analysis technology for rapid analysis of sugar factory process streams (see also  Services/NIRS)
  
• Polysaccharide Characterisation​​ – understanding of the types and extent of polysaccharides in sugar factories with a view to minimising their impact
  

Previous projects includ​e:​​

• Biological Nitrogen Fixation – investigation of the use of bacteria to fix nitrogen in vinasse
  
• Cane Characterisation Tools – development of laboratory tools to characterise sugarcane varieties in terms of suitability for diffuser extraction
  
• Diffuser Bed Voids – a project to explore improving diffuser percolation rates through elimination of bed voids
• Digestion Technology – exploration of improvements in anaerobic digestion for treatment of sugar mill effluent
  
• Direct Clear Juice – development of a system for clarifying and filtering diffuser draft juice within the diffuser
• Evaporator Tube Cleaning Device – investigation into the use of full-time in-tube cleaning devices
• Impact of Soil in Cane – investigation into the costs to a sugar mill of soil delivered with sugarcane
• ​Sacpol (Production of Sarkaran)​​​ – investigation into the potential for producing sarkaran polysaccharide by fungal fermentation
• Simulated Moving Bed Pilot Plant – exploration of the potential for industrial chromatography to recover sucrose in sugar mills ​
  
• Study of Hard-To-Boil Massecuites – exploration of physical phenomena slowing massecuite boiling rates
  
• Sugar Filterability Apparatus (Filterkwik) – an instrument for more consistent and informative measurement of sugar filterability (see  Services/SMRI Equipment​)
  
• Transfer of Oligosaccharides – consideration of the impact of oligosaccharides on boiling house recovery and ways to mitigate the impact
  
• Tube Tomography – development of a conductance tomography technique to visualise massecuite boiling in pan tubes