Simulation of a sugar beet factory using a chemical engineering software to perform energy analysis

Nowadays, it is of the utmost interest to optimize energy consumption within factories in a systematic way to face recent environmental regulations. This study shows a methodology to model food processes to in fine combining Pinch and exergy analysis, using a chemical engineering software (ProSimPlus ® , version 3.5.3.1.). The methodology was applied to a sugar beet factory. A UNIFAC-Larsen thermodynamic model was used to estimate the thermophysical properties of the streams. Each unit operation related to the sugar beet process was considered as a combination of several modules to distinguish the thermodynamic irreversibilities of the process: a unit operation module only simulates one energy change (pressure, temperature or composition). In addition, the numeral unit operations specific to the sugar beet process not existing in the ProSimPlus ® database (i.e. diffusion, mechanical press, filtration and centrifuge) were modeled. To do so, basic and generic unit operation modules and "constraints and recycles" modules (SPEC) were combined. The developed model
allows for the simulation of a sugar beet factory, with a deviation range within the industrial error bars.