MARIAN SECONDARY JUICE HEATER CONDENSATE SYSTEM IN 2014

IN 1991, MARIAN Mill was upgraded to handle cane from its historical cane area and that of Cattle Creek, moving from 450 tch to a nominal 700 tch. The secondary juice heater system was expanded to provide seven parallel heaters. These heaters are all situated very low to the ground floor level, leaving only 1000 mm height from the floor to the body of the heaters. The heaters’ condensate drains were piped to two condensate mains each leading to a separate condensate vessel and pump. In subsequent years, the heaters frequently suffered operational problems and multiple changes were subsequently made to the condensate system. Over the period 1991 to 2013, the direct results of the poor performances included low secondary juice temperatures, reduced condensate return to the boiler feedwater system and condensate discharged to the floor juice reclaim system. In 2014, a number of simple changes were made to the condensate piping and the condensate collection vessels which largely eliminated all those problems. The results of the change include improved secondary juice temperature control, reduced evaporator loading, surplus quality condensates and a lower steam on cane.