Sweet deal for American sugar!

Siemens has been awarded a contract to equip the biggest sugar refinery operating in North America with electrical and control technology. The plant, which is currently under construction in Gramercy, (LA US), will be owned and operated by Louisiana Sugar Refining (LSR), a joint venture set up with Sugar Growers and Refiners, Cargill and Imperial Sugar Company. The refinery is due to start production in September 2011, producing a million tons of sugar every year.

The Siemens Industry Automation Division will be supplying a wide range of electrical and control system components for the refinery. The contract will include the Simatic PCS 7 distributed control system, valve positioners, switchgear, smart motor control centers, Sinamics centrifugal drives and NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) certified motors. Added to this will be numerous software templates used to optimize the sugar refining process.

Siemens comes with a decades of experience in supplying automation equipment to the food industry, having successfully completed numerous large-scale projects. The company’s involvement with the sugar industry goes back as far as the 1960s. Its in-depth knowledge of the industry and the comprehensive portfolio of solutions and components offered by the Industry Automation Division played an instrumental role in finalizing the agreement.

“Apart from Siemens general experience in the sugar industry, we were won over by concrete aspects of their bid such as their crystallization process control strategy and general automation control concept. Working in cooperation with Siemens, we will make this plant the most technologically advanced sugar refinery in the United States", says LSR Plant Manager Jack Thompson.


“Our control methods and components for optimizing sugar production will help LSR achieve a sustainable improvement in its competitive position” says Prof. Michael Bruns, Head of Process Automation for the Siemens Industry Automation Division. “Our many years of experience in this industry mean that we are ideally placed to supply precisely tailored automation solutions. These are designed to allow our customers to produce more sugar per unit of time, to a higher and more consistent standard of quality, and consequently at reduced cost."