Sugar Syrup Filtration With the Jumbo Star System: Technological Innovation and Improved Sustainability for an Evolving Application

Fruitful relationships between Sartorius and Sibeg—manufacturer of beverages for the Coca-Cola brand—have been ongoing for more than twenty years, with the goal of optimizing technological solutions for Sibeg filtration processes, from service fluids (water, air, gas, steam) to some components of Coca-Cola soft drinks, all the way to microbiological testing for QC | QA.

In particular, Sibeg production process involves the annual transformation of 10,000 tonnes of sugar—a very important ingredient whose quality is influenced by several factors, such as country of origin, manufacturing technology and transportation—into sugar syrup at 60 °Brix at 55 °C, to be filtered at 20 µm to ensure the particulate quality standards required.

Aim of this project was to improve and automate the sugar syrup filtration process—in relation to the use of traditional 20 µm polypropylene cartridges—in order to reduce water and energy consumption for washing cycles, optimize manpower for the production process, and minimize the use of consumables, thus reducing operating costs as well as the environmental footprint. Therefore, Sartorius introduced the MF Semi-automated 2PD Jumbo Duo system, that has allowed to achieve the set objectives.