MM Project (Monitoring Mills): development of analytical intelligence to increase industrial efficiency in the processing of sugarcane and corn for the production of sugar, ethanol and other products

• Grant number: 22/11010-6
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: May 01, 2023
• End date: October 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Jaime Finguerut
• Grantee: Jaime Finguerut
• Company: ITC Consultoria em Engenharia Ltda. - ME
• CNAE: Fabricação de álcool
• Pesquisadores principais: Sergio Suzuki ; Wokimar Teixeira Garcia
• Associated researchers: Taís Helena Martins Lacerda

Abstract

Instituto Tecnologia Canavieira (ITC) is a company specialized in providing engineering and management solutions that facilitate problem-solving and collaborate in decision-making with the sugar-energy sector.It considered as a window of opportunity to develop a monitoring tool, which is considered one of the traditional performance evaluation techniques, and in April 2021 it started its first pilot project called "Project MM (Monitoring Mills): development of Analytical Intelligence to increase of industrial efficiency in the processing of sugarcane and corn for the production of sugar, ethanol and other products", focusing on the evaluation of industrial plants and potential for improvement through the use of Technology Enabling Industry 4.0 (I4.0) . The project employs sensing technologies based on Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) for on-line monitoring by obtaining analytical data on the composition of raw materials and the main currents that are responsible for most of the losses, analyzing the output currents of the milling operation and the fermentation process. The pilot project began with the establishment of a partnership with Usina São Manoel to implement its initial phase, which involved the set-up and acquisition of sensors; survey and selection of monitoring points; instrumentalization of monitoring points; sensor calibration; preparation for routine tests; optimization of equations and routine applications; and routine aimed at continuous improvement that represents this initial stage that has been monitored and fed back since the end of the 2021 harvest, and the company already has a database generated through the collection of data referring to analytical records in the routine at the mill and in the process of fermentation and on-line monitoring. In the submission to Phase 2 of FAPESP's PIPE Program, represented by the second stage of the pilot project, the ITC intends to use the database generated in the initial phase to improve the on-line profiles of the composition of prepared cane, bagasse, must and wine centrifuged by on-line capture and from other data sources, to later employ exploratory statistical analysis and machine learning techniques, aiming to confirm and quantify the relationship between the possible causes and the losses quantified by the sensors; will lead the development and implementation of conventional control loops using already calibrated and audited sensors, allowing a more efficient control either in strategy or in the speed of adaptation to changes; and still intends to expand with the implantation of advanced control loops with expansion of the scope of the NIR, adding other variables to be analyzed by the sensors. The purpose of this second phase is also to develop the Artificial Intelligence algorithm based on data from phase 1 of the implemented pilot project. This system will gradually relate to operators and supervisors with messages and proposition of actions ("open loop") and then assume some controls in "closed loops", that is, the system itself assuming changes in set-points, for example. (AU)