How Cane Is Processed into Sugar at PT RMI's Factory

Rejoso Manis Indo, 08 September 2022 | Penulis : Muhamad Devi Riswandi
How Cane Is Processed into Sugar at PT RMI's Factory
Sugarcane is spilled with a tipper machine for further delivery to the Milling House.
The sugar industry made from sugar cane has actually existed in Indonesia since the early 19th century. But until now, not a few people who do not understand how the basic ingredients that we consume every day are produced.

Actually, the production process for white crystal sugar, which is more popularly called granulated sugar, is generally not much different from one factory to another. However, at the PT Rejoso Manis Indo (RMI) factory, the process is carried out with a set of sophisticated machines from the latest generation.

The state-of-the-art machinery resulted in high-quality granulated sugar. Moreover, the production capacity is also high, the production cost is more efficient, the yield is more optimal, and the operation is environmentally friendly.

The following are the main nodes in the production flow of sugar cane into granulated sugar at a sugar factory owned by PT RMI located in Rejoso Village, Binangun District, Blitar Regency, East Java.

Sugarcane Juice

First the sugar cane goes into the chopper (cutter). In this phase, the long sugarcane stalks from harvesting in the garden will be cut into shorter sizes. This chopping will make the stems easier to process at the next stage, namely pounding.

Short sugarcane stalks are pounded (hammer) and then crushed with a shredder machine so that they become fine sugar cane fibers. In this process, a lot of liquid in the sugar cane has come out.

Sugarcane that has been crushed into small fibers that move to the squeezing machine. The working principle of the squeezing machine is to insert the sugarcane fibers into two rotating cylinders that coincide with each other. Sugarcane stalks that have been crushed will pass through two cylinders and be squeezed between them so that the process of squeezing occurs.

At the factory owned by PT RMI, this squeezing process occurs in five stages, so that the sugarcane juice or sugarcane syrup is extracted maximally. This process produces sap or sugar cane juice or syrup whose cane sugar is still mixed with other substances (especially water).

On the other hand, this process will also produce waste in the form of bagasse (bagas), namely bagasse which has almost no more liquid and sugar content.

Evaporation

Next, the sugarcane syrup enters the evaporation process or the evaporation process in the boiler machine. In this phase, the water content will evaporate and leave a thick sugarcane juice.

Sifting

The next process is sifting. Sugarcane juice enters a container resembling a tube which is then rotated in such a way according to the centrifugal law. Through this process, there is a separation between pure solid sugar and liquid sugar that is still there. In this process, a by-product is also produced in the form of molasses or commonly called molasses.

Crystallization

Approaching the final phase of the sugar-making process is the crystallization process. In this phase, pure sugarcane juice is sprinkled with flour which is called sugar seed flour. The crystallization process actually takes place in several stages, the essence of which is the process of making pure sugarcane juice thick into crystal sugar.

After the crystallization process, the final phase comes, namely the destruction of sugar in the form of crystals into small crystal grains. The result is granular sugar crystals that are ready to be packaged and distributed. *