Most sugar and ethanol mills operate on steam turbines. This technology, although providing well, doesn’t assure the total control of what is being produced. For this reason, the mills are motorizing these processes acquiring motors with inverters to drive the mills increasing the generation of energy and improving the operation as a whole.

By supplying the process with electricity, the mill uses up less and sells more. An example of this is the Usina Miriri, in the state of Paraíba, producer of ethanol and sugar, who had a steam turbine and acquired WEG products to change to power supply system.

WEG supplied protection cubicles, control panels and automation, a generator, transformers, MCCs, frequency inverters and high efficiency three-phase electric motors. The equipment is for the generation, distribution and control of the processes. “We are modernizing the mill beginning to work with a new line which until now had not been explored, which is sugar, and increasing the generation of energy. All this with WEG solutions”, says Emanuel Pinheiro de Melo, Industrial Manager at Miriri.

By supplying the twin mills with electricity, the customer minimized excessive costs with maintenance. Now, the reduction in the consumption of steam is redirected to the boiler. “This steam is then sent to the new generator producing much more energy for Miriri who can then profit from selling this input”, explains Marcos Hubner, engineer and analyst of the sugarcane-alcohol segment at WEG.

The acquisition of the new drives with speed variation provides better control and monitoring which, along with the High Efficiency motors, minimize the operational cost and thus reduce the indexes of maintenance and consumption. According to Emanuel Pinheiro, WEG was chosen to supply the mill for being a Brazilian company and because they already knew the quality of WEG’s products. “Because we have been partners for a long time, we have seen the technological level of WEG products increase day by day”, he points out. The industrial manager of Miriri also mentions the technical assistance and after sales service. “Whenever we need anything, we just contact the regional representatives and our doubts are easily clarified”. To reach the ideal solution, the WEG team made several technical visits to the mill and different units of the company were involved under the coordination of the WEG Energia Business Center. Technical commercial proposals were developed and the negotiation lasted for about six months. The forecast is that up to the end of August the equipment will already be operating.

Detailed scope - Miriri:

Generator 7,500 kVA / 13.8 kV

Generator Output cubicle

Generator Surge and Excitation cubicle

Generator Neutral conductor cubicle

Control and Protection Panel of the Generator

Motors HGF355 line, 500Hp, 6 poles, 480 V

Oil transformer: 750 kVA

Oil transformer: 1,500 kVA

Oil transformer: 1,000 kVA

MV distribution cubicle

LV distribution Panel

MCCs

Frequency Inverters Model CFW11

Frequency Inverters Model CFW09

Approximately 2300Hp of WEG High Efficiency Motors