Sugar industry
Sugar production consists of four steps: extraction, purification, concentration, and crystallization. This analysis compares several sugar production configurations based on energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. These alternatives differ in terms of:
- Energy vector for heat supply – natural gas, biomethane, hydrogen, electricity
- Heat recovery – waste heat recovery via heat pump (HP) integration
- CO₂ capture – implementation of chemical absorption (MEA)
Want to explore the emissions in more detail?
Click below to access the detailed assessment to examine how the different technologies and energy vectors contribute to overall CO₂ emissions.
Energy demand components (GJ/t sugar):
- NG-Process – Natural gas demand for sugar production
- EL-Process – Electricity demand for sugar production
- H2-Process – Hydrogen demand for sugar production
- BioCH4-Process – Biomethane demand for sugar production
- EL-CC – Power required by MEA-based CO₂ Capture
- NG-CC – Heat required by MEA-based CO₂ Capture
- Fuel-HP – Fuel savings after HP integration
- EL-HP – Electricity demand/savings after HP integration
Heat pump integration impact:
Switch the toggle on to observe the impact of HP integration.
HP typically decrease fuel demand at the expense of a higher electricity consumption (for heat pump operation) per ton of sugar.