GEA and CST partner to drive sugar industry transition

GEA and Chemical Systems Technologies (CST), an India-based engineering company specializing in process solutions for the sugar industry, have entered into a strategic partnership to accelerate the global adoption of decanter centrifuges in sugar mud dewatering. By combining GEA’s decanter technology and global market access with CST’s deep process expertise, the collaboration aims to support sugar producers in upgrading existing operations and improving total cost of ownership.

With profitability and resource efficiency under increasing pressure, sugar recovery through decanter-based dewatering is becoming a critical lever for sugar mill performance. GEA decanters are well established across industrial separation applications, and their advantages in sugar mud dewatering have already been proven in the field. The partnership with CST is designed to accelerate this transition by combining proven technology with deep process expertise.

"For many sugar producers, improving yield alone is no longer enough; resource efficiency and operating costs are becoming equally critical. Decanter technology addresses exactly these challenges with measurable impact," says Martin Neugebauer, Senior Director Business Line Renewables at GEA.

From conventional systems to more efficient processing

Sugar mill mud is produced during the clarification of sugar juice through lime milk treatment and subsequent sedimentation, typically in short retention time clarifiers (SRTC) or conventional clarifiers. Dewatering this mud is a standard step in sugar processing, and rotary vacuum drum filters (RVDF) have been the conventional technology of choice in mills around the world for decades. Belt presses are another established alternative. While both technologies are proven in the field, they share well-known limitations: high levels of water and steam consumption, dependency on filter aids, significant product losses, and labor-intensive operations that are difficult to automate and prone to variability.

GEA decanters offer a continuous, closed-process alternative that directly addresses these limitations, reducing operational complexity while improving resource efficiency. Following juice clarification, concentrated mud, which typically represents around 10–20 percent of the process flow, is fed directly to the decanter, where solids and centrate are continuously separated. The centrate is returned to the process, while the dewatered solids are discharged for disposal or further use.

Yield improvement as a key economic driver

The performance case is backed by extensive field experience. "Based on nearly 50 decanter units installed across sugar mills in India, with capacities ranging from 3,500 to 18,000 tons of cane per day, we have consistently seen producers achieve significantly lower product losses when switching from conventional de-sugarization systems – reductions of up to 60 percent compared with rotary vacuum drum filters and up to 25 percent compared with belt presses," explains Anup Keserwani, Director CST.

Reference installations demonstrate an average sugar loss in cake of 0.03 percent on cane with decanter centrifuges, compared with 0.07 percent with RVDF. At a mill processing 10,000 tons of cane per day over a typical 150-day campaign, this difference equates to approximately 600 additional tons of recoverable sugar per campaign – a direct yield gain with no additional cane input or processing cost. At current market prices, the financial impact is substantial and typically delivers a rapid return on investment.

Higher sugar recovery directly affects plant economics: lower losses translate into higher yield and a measurable improvement in return on investment. De-sugarization technology therefore becomes a central lever for optimizing total cost of ownership.

Resource efficiency under increasing pressure

Operational data from reference installations show that decanter technology delivers measurable improvements in resource efficiency. Unlike rotary vacuum drum filters and belt filter presses, decanters operate as closed systems, which significantly reduces the temperature drop at this stage. On average, the temperature drop in a decanter stage is approximately 2–5°C, compared with approximately 20–30°C in conventional open systems. Water consumption is reduced accordingly: rotary vacuum drum filters require around 6 percent water on cane for de-sugarization, and belt presses require up to 8 percent, while decanter centrifuges avoid the need for additional wash water in the de-sugarization step. As a result, decanter installations do not create additional steam demand, whereas rotary vacuum drum filters typically require around 1 percent steam on cane and belt filter presses around 1.2 percent.

Another major advantage of the closed decanter stage is that it helps prevent impurities from entering the product. The closed system, combined with short retention time, high temperatures and no contamination from bagacillo, significantly reduces microbial activity and thereby increases the purity of the end product.

Operational simplification and plant performance

Several additional characteristics make decanter centrifuges a practical and reliable upgrade path for mills looking to modernize existing dewatering infrastructure:

• Decanter centrifuges require approximately 50 percent less floor space than comparable conventional systems, enabling more compact plant layouts and simplifying civil works for both new installations and retrofit projects.
• Continuous operation stabilizes process conditions and delivers consistent separation performance even at varying feed compositions – an important advantage in sugar processing, where fiber content and mud characteristics can fluctuate significantly across a campaign.
• Automated operation and integrated CIP (cleaning-in-place) options reduce manual intervention, lower manpower requirements, and support hygienic, low-touch processing.

For sugar producers looking to modernize their dewatering operations, the GEA-CST partnership offers a clear path from assessment through implementation to optimization.
By combining complementary expertise in decanter technology and sugar processing, the collaboration supports efficient project execution and reliable operational performance.
With a clear focus on retrofit projects and availability across all major sugar-producing regions, the collaboration helps mills capture the efficiency and yield potential of decanter-based dewatering while minimizing disruption to existing operations.