-state-of-the-art Skeldon factory said to be the largest investment in Guyana’s history

AS SWEET AS SUGAR’: President Bharrat Jagdeo tasting the sugar grains produced at the Skeldon Factory yesterday. (Adrian Narine photo)

IN another testament to the foresight of President Bharrat Jagdeo and his Administration, the US$185M state-of-the-art Skeldon sugar factory was officially commissioned yesterday. Conceived in 1998 as part of GuySuco’s strategic review, the commissioning of the factory marks the culmination of 10 years of planning and execution.

It comes at a time of great uncertainty in the world of sugar, especially for the 18 sugar-producing countries in the ACP (African-Caribbean-Pacific) Union of which Guyana is a member, as the European Union’s 36% price cut is expected to be implemented on October 1. 

The price cut threatens the viability of the sugar industry in several of these countries, including Guyana, and has resulted in some countries deciding to stop producing sugar altogether.

However, recognizing that sugar is Guyana’s most significant foreign exchange earner ($35B) and one of the largest employers in the country (20,000 workers), Government has stepped up, investing heavily in the sugar sector to reduce production costs and increase value-added production. The Skeldon factory is an integral part of this plan.

Delivering the feature address at yesterday’s commissioning ceremony, President Jagdeo noted that from very early, his administration recognised that it had to modernize sugar, bauxite and rice to make them globally competitive.

This is the largest investment in financial terms in the history of this country; (but) there has been an even larger investment, it is the blood, sweat and tears that our people have invested in this industry from slavery to indentureship.”

The President noted that modernization of the industry has not been completed with the construction of the modern factory in Region Six, as there are several other areas where actions have to be taken. 

‘SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT’: President Bharrat Jagdeo, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh and Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud at the Skeldon factory yesterday.

He indicated that field production of cane has to be increased to the 1.2 million tonnes needed for the factory as soon as possible, and he instructed the management and the Minister of Agriculture to ensure that this is achieved by 2010.

Increasing ‘value for money’ products is another area that has to be addressed, the Head of State said.

We are not going to make this industry better through rhetoric; we have a duty to the workers of this industry and the people of this country to make this investment work,” the President told the large gathering (estimated in the hundreds) at Skeldon.

Higher productivity is a must, he said as he expressed optimism that Guyana can produce 400,000 tonnes of sugar annually.

“All of this will contribute to sugar becoming profitable and the modernization of the sugar industry will only be called a success when GuySuco starts to contribute to the national treasury.”

Again, the president underscored the crucial role of workers to the industry’s success.

Workers have a right to fair compensation but they have to understand that they have a critical role to play in the industry.”

Features of the new factory
The factory incorporates some of the best technologies from the world of sugar manufacturing. These technologies are applied to provide a high efficiency manufacturing process that makes the best recovery of the sucrose and the energy in the raw sugar cane. This energy is harnessed to power the factory in converting the sucrose to sugar crystals and the surplus energy is used in the national grid.

A section of the large gathering yesterday.

According to a report from the Government Information Agency (GINA), the new factory features a fully automated continuous process, rather than the traditional intermittent batch process. The use of high steam pressures and temperatures (54 bar and 485 degrees Celsius) allow a high thermal efficiency to be achieved which makes it possible to consistently produce a high quality product and is essential in the cogeneration context.

Also, the use of diffusion technology, in place of traditional milling extraction, improves sucrose recovery and reduces energy consumption and maintenance costs.

Other advanced technologies that characterize the factory include:

* An improved, automated punt dumper for offloading cane;

* A cane shredder to increase extraction;

* Air supported belt conveyors throughout the factory;

* All-electric drives to reduce energy consumption;

* Self cleaning, single pass, high efficiency boilers;

* Pollution controls to World Bank standards, including electrostatic precipitators;

* Continuous vacuum pans;

* Continuous crystallizers;

* Central control room with PLC (Programmable Logic Controllers) based factory automation;

* Condensing turbine for power generation during off season; and

* Independent power station with automatic load following capability.

Sugar production

An aerial view of the Skeldon factory.

The factory with a capacity to produce about 120,000 tonnes of raw sugar, will require about 1.2 million tonnes of cane annually, about three times the requirement of the old sugar mill.

The additional canes will be produced from about 4,700 hectares of new estate lands in Manarabisi (for a total of over 9,600 hectares) and about 4,200 hectares of new farmers’ lands being developed at locations near the estate and at Moleson Creek.

It is expected that private farmers will supply around 30% of the total canes delivered to the mill.

Future plans for the sugar mill include the conversion of the cane into ethanol, an alternative to fossil fuels. The ethanol would be exported mainly, although local use is also likely.

Also, the construction of a $1.2B packaging facility at Enmore Sugar Estate is ongoing. This would serve to add value to sugar being produced at Skeldon.

Power Co-generation
On December 20, 2007, GUYSUCO began supplying co-generated power to the Berbice Grid. The co-generation factory has the capacity to supply 10MW of electricity daily from one 5.0MW set and two 2.5MW sets.

Power is dispatched to the grid at 13.8kV for the first phase of export and a 69kV transmission link is being installed to take the full output from Skeldon. Since the start in December, 2007, the incidence of load shedding in Berbice has reduced significantly.

On May 4, 2008 the Skeldon Sugar Modernization Project became the first project in Guyana to be registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.

Registration as a CDM project allows GuySuCo to sell Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) that result from the generation of electrical energy generated from bagasse fuel.

Bagasse is the fibrous residue that remains after the extraction of sucrose from sugar cane and, as a biomass, it represents a renewable energy source. Generation of electricity from bagasse displaces fossil fuels that would otherwise be used to generate electricity.

The overall effect is a reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide which is a “greenhouse” gas that contributes to global warming.

Contributions to Guyana
The Skeldon sugar mill, and the wider sugar sector modernization project, have and will contribute significantly to Guyana’s economic well-being. Besides maintaining the viability of the sugar industry by reducing costs, other benefits to Guyana include:

* Sale of power to Guyana Power and Light Company since December 2007 – This has helped to stabilize the power supply in Berbice. When operating at full capacity, this factory will provide most of the daily base load power requirement for Berbice;

* Reduction of Guyana’s reliance on fossil fuels;

* Ability to earn carbon credits; and

* The project has delivered two water conservancies with a combined area of 7,400 hectares, and a 12km link canal to provide irrigation and transport services to farmers in the Moleson Creek/Crabwood Creek area.

The Skeldon factory was constructed with a combination of self-generated funds and loans from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Guyana.

The Project Engineer was Booker Tate, UK Ltd and the contractor was Chinese National Technical and Industrial Corporation (CNTIC) Ltd.

Guyana may have been forced to act as a result of the EU sugar price cut but Government’s bold actions have ensured that the world will continue to enjoy Demerara sugar for many years to come.

There is a world sugar shortage currently which has driven up sugar’s world market price, and with Guyana’s efforts to reduce its production costs, profits from the sale of  the country’s sugar will be significantly higher.