BigPatents India

A vacuum pan for sugar industry and other applications is disclosed wherein the central downtake is supplemented by a circular ring-shaped downtake that reduces the travel distances involved in the massecuite recirculation. This reduces strike times and enhances pan productivity by about 15-25% and gives a more uniform crystal size and better mixing of the massecuite. The placing of the additional downtake is such as to, ful1hermore, equalise said travel distances between different regions A, B and C of the calandria faces and the downtakes. Region A covers about 10-15% of the calandria face area round the central downtake while B and C, which are circular ring-shaped cover the remainder. The additional downtake is located symmetrically between Band C. A new solution feed system is described.