Evaluation of the glucosa process from sucrose in the UEB Argentina

Abstract

In this work two alternatives are presented: 1) based on making changes in the operational parameters of the plant without making an economic investment and 2) based on the purchase of fans for the crystallization process with economic investment, to increase the yield in the process of glucose production in the Argentine UEB located in the province of Camagüey, since it has a simple technology, the result of a technology transfer from Czechoslovakia and with an annual production plan of 250 tons of glucose. With the objective of evaluating this glucose plant, the SuperPro Designer v10.0 program was used to obtain a simulation model that allows proposing alternatives to solve the problems detected, other than seeing the quality and performance of the process. The economic evaluation of the alternative that involves an investment was carried out using the Hand method, resulting in an investment cost of 27,000 CUP. The following economic indicators were calculated: the net present value that was positive, the capital recovery period of 2.5 years, a discounted capital recovery period of 3.46 years, an internal rate of return of 29% and a return on investment of 40.1 %. These indicators show that the alternative is feasible.