REVIEW OF THE INSTALLATION OF A NEW SET OF COOLING TOWERS AT FARLEIGH MILL

THE COOLING TOWERS at Farleigh mill were upgraded prior to the start of the 2014 season. A set of Jord cooling towers was demolished and replaced with a Breezewater installation. Other factory cooling towers including the Pritchard were not replaced in the upgrade. The condition of the Jord cooling towers at Farleigh Mill had deteriorated progressively after many years of good use. The fill in the cells of the tower started to collapse and the risk posed in operating Farleigh without sufficient cooling water capacity was of concern. The repair of the Jord tower was not considered economically viable. This paper reviews the upgrade to the cooling water towers and assesses the impact of the upgraded cooling tower on factory performance in the 2014 season. In particular, the performances of the pan stage and evaporator station in 2013 and 2014 are reviewed. The impact on the pan stage has been noticeable with only 1% of raw sugar samples failing to meet the premium grade for fine grain in the 2014 season. This compares favourably to the 2013 season where 12% of the samples failed. The season average crushing rate performance of the factory increased from 482 tonne cane per hour in 2013 to 496 in 2014.