MSM Sugar Refinery (Johor) Reflection
MSM Sugar Refinery (Johor) Sdn. Bhd. (MSM Johor) is a subsidiary of MSM Malaysia Holdings Berhad (MSM) which operates MSM’s new sugar refinery based in Tanjung Langsat, Johor. This refinery is set to be the largest standalone sugar refinery in Malaysia with an area of 50.63 acre land plot. The integrated refinery complex commenced its operations in November 2018 and became fully commercialised in April 2019, contributing up to 1 million tonnes to the Group’s annual production capacity. As the leading sugar producer in Malaysia, MSM produces an extensive range of sugar products, available in various grades and packing sizes. MSM’s sugar products are certified HALAL and KOSHER by the respective governing bodies.
A site visit was conducted on 16th June 2022 by Group 1 to MSM Sugar Refinery (Johor) Sdn. Bhd.. Due to the nature of the refinery involved in sugar processing, this site visit is deemed as necessary in order to obtain more knowledge regarding the downstream processes involved in sugar refining. Since the product of the plant design project of Group 1 is glucose and also the fact that glucose belongs to the subcategory of sugar, therefore similar refining processes that are involved in MSM Sugar Refinery (Johor) could be compared and applied in the project design in order to obtain pure glucose.
Our industrial tour guide, Encik Daniel, is a worker that has more than 4 years experience in the MSM Sugar Refinery (Johor) Sdn. Bhd. is leading us during the industry visit. He is responsible for providing the safety briefing to us to let us know what the thing can do and cannot do. Apart from the safety briefing, he also gave a talk on introducing their company and the process flow.
The product of the MSM Sugar Refinery Sdn. Bhd. has been authorised by a global certificate. The first certificate is HACCP 2021 which is an international standard for the effective control of food safety. Moreover, the quality of the production area such as warehouse, office and refinery is certified with International Standard Organization 9001:2015 which states good quality of manufacturing.
The sugar that is refined by MSM has been distributed into a few types based on the grades of sugar. These grades of sugar will be categorised into coarse granulated, fine granulated and caster. Caster sugar is known as superfine sugar, this type of sugar is often used for bakery purposes because it can easily dissolve into the batters and meringues due to its large exposure surface, small particle size. Besides, P1 grade sugar or known as coarse granulated sugar is popular sugar that can be seen in the market. Generally it is used for sweetening and cooking. For the PXX (fine granulated) usually is sold to the food industrial purpose.
Refining Process Flow
Transfer of raw sugar. For upstream, raw sugar is exported mainly from Wilmar International and delivered to MSM jetty. They are unloaded from lighters onto belt conveyors using a crane and excavator fitted with grab buckets. The conveyors take the sugar to a weigher for weighing before discharging it into the warehouse for storage.
Affination & melting. For downstream, in the initial phase of the refining, raw sugar crystals are combined with raw syrup to soften and eliminate contaminants from the crystal outer coats. The crystals are then removed from the syrup and centrifuged with hot water. This is known as "affination." Soon after, the raw sugar is combined with boiling water, and the resulting liquor is "raw liquor." Then, they are dissolved in a premelter to form melted liquor.
Carbonation. Carbonation is the process through which CO2 gas is combined with lime liquid within the carbonator. The interaction between limed liquor and carbon dioxide produces calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and water (H2O). All contaminants will be confined inside the liquid due to the development of Calcium Carbonate.
Filtration. The carbonated precipitate together with the impurities are removed by pressure filtering through the first and second side filters leaving “clear liquor”. In Prai, a rotary dryer is used but in Johor, a fluidized bed is used.
Granulated activated carbon. Further colour removal is achieved where the carbon is burnt 400?. Fine liquor is produced.
Evaporator. Triple effect evaporator is used where there are 3 columns to increase the brix.
Vacuum pan. The concentrated fine fluid is then boiled in a vacuum pan to achieve desired brix and generate sugar crystals. As "seed," fine sugar crystals are used. By adding additional liquor, the crystals expand to the desired size. When they are large enough, a mixture of sugar crystals and syrup, known as "massecuite", forms and is expelled from the pan.
Curing. In a centrifuge machine, the massecuite is separated into its constituent crystal and syrup elements. Separate molasses and sugar. A centrifugal machine has a stirrer that resembles a spinner. The spinner's duty is to spin the massecuite until the syrup is separated from the sugar. To improve the separating effect, the crystals in the machine are hosed with hot water.
Drying cooling. Process for crystallization to occur.
Screening. The screening station's job is to eliminate non-standard sugar sizes by separating the sugar using two rotex sieves and a spring beneath. These rotex will vibrate in order to separate the undesirable sugar. After that, the refined sugar crystals are dried, cooled, sieved, and stored in bins.
Packing and delivery. From the storage bins, the sugar is transported by conveyor belts to the packaging area and packed into various grades and weights or transferred into the silo(storage tower) for sugar delivery by bulk containers.
Q&A Session for Extra Information
Why is the design of the warehouse building where raw sugar is placed triangular?
Because it is near the sea, the humidity is high. High humidity is not preferred as it causes sugar lumps. So such design makes it less air, so less humidity.
Why in Prai uses ion exchange resin while in Johor uses granulated activated carbon, is it about the cost?
Because ion exchange resin uses a large amount of water for brine solution and in Penang it is highly available while in Johor, only rely on SAJ Ranhill. The cost is highly dependent on the situation.
What is the temperature for the rotary dryer and fluidized bed?
Rotary dryer ~ 40-45? ; Fluidized bed ~ 60?
Why does MSM Prai use a rotary dryer while MSM Johor uses a fluidized bed?
Company had own reason but rotary dryer is easier in operation as sugar lumps break down as it rotates while for fluidized bed, sugar lumps may form easily and cause block as the mechanism uses air.
How is the cleaning procedure when the fluidized bed is blocked with sugar lumps?
Manual cleaning where staff would need to enter. Washing with hot water will be done as the surfaces of the equipment would be sticky.
Is the unit for the sugar production in kg/hr or kg/batch?
The unit that is used for MSM is in ton/hr. This is because the process is continuous.
Reflecting back on the visit to MSM Sugar Refinery in Tanjung Langsat, Johor it was a wonderful opportunity to experience a visit to a sugar refinery company as it ties in with our Plant Design project. We feel like we learned a lot and gained a lot of experience and knowledge in just one visit. This visit definitely helped a lot in contributing to a better understanding of our project because we had the opportunity to visit a real-life industrial sugar refining process rather than only doing research and referencing theoretical research on the internet as we had done previously for our project. Before visiting the plant, we had a brief introduction about the history of MSM, the processing of refining sugar and safety measures to take during the tour, given by Mr. Danial. This is when we realised that most of the processing was similar to our project such as boiling, filtration, evaporation, curing and drying. Slight differences of the processes added more information and knowledge for us. For example, they used activated carbon to remove impurities and reduce the colour of the sugar as for us, we use ion exchange resin process. However, Mr. Danial elaborated that their branch in Penang uses the ion exchange resin process due to suitability of site location where brine solution was highly available for the process. But in terms of cost, ion exchange resin is higher compared to activated carbon. Then, at the plant visit, we had the chance to look at the sugar warehouse which was the landmark of the company from the entrance as it was a triangular shape with its’ emblem on it. Heaps of sugar were in the warehouse and the sugar were transported into the underground conveyor belts that was connected all the way into the processing house. At the processing area, we entered the control room and observed how they monitored each processing unit. Then, we also visited the packaging house to see how they packaged 1 kg and 500 kg of sugar. We also asked few question to the staff workers there on their job role, scopes of work, hardship and experience gained in their career to gain information on preparing ourselves to work in the industry after graduating. This visit was definitely worth it as we learned that every little supervision is required for each process and we hope that with these knowledge, skills and experiences gained from this visit and Plant Design project, we can become a valuable and productive fresh graduate and engineer towards the industry.