MACHINERY AND PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF INDIGENOUS BROWN SUGAR PROCESSING PLANT AT SARA, NIGERIA

摘要

A 10 tons per day capacity indigenous small scale brown sugar processing plant was established at Sara, Jigawa State in Nigeria in 1998. All the processing machines and equipment were locally fabricated, installed and test-run by the National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi which presently has the national mandate on sugar cane research and development. The Jigawa State government provided the infrastructural facilities and also encouraged corporative farmers to establish sugar plantations from whom the major raw material (Sugar Cane) were bought to feed the factory. The factory has four (4) basic sections. These include the cane off-loading area, milling bay, boiling area and finishing section. Two (2) cane juice extractors, two (2) juice evaporation units, one (1) crystallizer and one (1) rotary dryer were installed in the factory. An average plant sugar recovery rate of 7.6 - 7.7% was recorded. The performances of the various components of the plant were also encouraging as highlighted in the text.