THYSSENKRUPP TWO ROLLER CANE MILL AND ITS PERFORMANCE AT INDIAN CANE POWER LTD, KARNATAKA, INDIA

INDIAN CANE POWER Ltd (ICPL) was established in 2005 as a cogeneration sugar plant for export of green power to the grid. Initial plant capacity was 5 000 t cane/d. The original milling tandem, comprising four 1 070 mm × 2 130 mm size conventional three-roller mills with an under-feed roller, has been steadily expanded to 12 500 t cane/d in three phases from 2011 to 2014. Thyssenkrupp proposed to install a newly developed design of two-roller mill in the available limited space, to achieve the targeted capacity of 12 500 t cane/d. The first two-roller mill of 1 270 mm × 2 540 mm size was commissioned in the 2011 season as the fifth mill. It was provided with a grooved roller pressure feeder. After achieving good performance of the new design, ICPL ordered the same size mill as a zero (pre) mill. The new two-roller mill design has proved to be reliable while handling the required capacity and has given satisfactory performance. The milling plant crushed approximately 1.3 Mt of cane in the 2015–16 season. In 2016–17 season ICPL has commissioned a new parallel diffuser tandem with a capacity of 13 000 t cane/d. Thyssenkrupp supplied two larger size two roller mills 1 400 mm × 2 800 mm size installed as dewatering mills. Due to draught and shortage of cane the system could be tested only up to 10 000 t cane/d during the short season. This paper documents the design, performance and operational experience of the newly developed design of two-roller mill at the ICPL sugar plant.