PRODUCTS

SUGAR

Tully Sugar Limited produces raw sugar for export through the Mourilyan Bulk Sugar Terminal. The amount of raw sugar produced each year depends on the quantity of sugar cane available for crushing, the sugar content of that cane and the efficiency with which our operation can extract the sugar.

Over the last 10 years, since 2009, Tully Sugar Limited has an average annual production of 277,000 tonnes of raw sugar. Peak production was in 2018 when 366,000 tonnes of raw sugar was produced.

Our Mill primarily produces what is known as Brand 1 sugar. The “brand” specifies the sucrose content or Pol of the raw sugar (98.80 – 99.05%). Our facility has the capacity to produce other types of raw sugar of both higher and lower Pol.

The quality of raw sugar is specified by 11 parameters. If laboratory analysis of the sugar determines that it meets all 11 parameters then the sugar is regarded as Premium Grade. Raw sugar produced annually by Tully Sugar Limited is consistently well above the industry average Premium Grade standard for Queensland Sugar Mills.

The specifications for raw sugar are made for the following parameters:

– Pol (sucrose content)
– % Moisture (water content)
– % Reducing Sugars (glucose & fructose)
– Starch ppm
– % Inorganic material
– Dextran ppm
– Colour
– Temperature
– % Fine Grain (the fraction of sugar crystals that are smaller than a specified size)
– Filterability (a measure of the effort required to filter dissolved raw sugar)

 

MOLASSES

We produce in excess of 65,000 tonnes of final molasses each year. Approximately 50 per cent of molasses produced is sold on the domestic market, predominantly to graziers for stock feed. 

While the balance is exported via the Mourilyan Port, through Australian Molasses Trading.

 

BAGASSE

Bagasse is the cane-fibre residue and is utilised as a renewable fuel, allowing our factory to be fully energy self-sufficient while in crushing mode and supply 10Mw of green energy to the Tully district electricity grid.

Tully Mill has been exporting back into the local grid since 1996.  The bagasse is combusted in boilers to produce high pressure steam which drives the power houses and mill turbines. The exhaust steam is used to process the sugar juice.

 

MILL MUD/ASH

Mill mud (or filter press) remains after the cane juice is clarified and filtered. It contains soil and other organic impurities from the sugarcane that enters our mills, sugars and bagasse particles and lime, which is used in the clarification process.  Read More

Ash is the material that remains after the combustion of fuel (largely bagasse) in our mill boilers. These beneficial by-products are distributed over farms as organic soil conditioner and an important source of plant nutrients within the industry.

 

Renewable Energy

Tully Sugar produces Clean, green, baseload power when in operational mode.

Tully Sugar Limited generates 99.5% of the total annual enterprise energy usage by firing steam boilers with renewable biomass. The biomass is known as “bagasse” and is the fibre that remains after extracting the juice from the sugar cane.

In addition to our own energy requirements, when our facility is operating, we export 10MW of “green” power into the Queensland Electricity grid. Our Company has been exporting green power since 1997. This level of energy production represents the limit of our current generating and transmission capacity.

Our Mill produces an excess of bagasse that cannot be converted into electricity with our current infrastructure (or that of the transmission authority). As a result the excess bagasse is loaded onto trucks and dumped onto fallow cane lands. The consequence of any improvement in the energy efficiency of our operations would be even more excess bagasse that needed to be trucked away. Truck haulage is expensive, energy inefficient and uses non-renewable fuel. This is a strong disincentive to use less renewable energy in our factory.

The largest single contributor to the 0.5% of non-renewable energy used in Tully Sugar Limited’s operation is the burning of diesel fuel to drive our fleet of cane haulage locomotives. The rail network is inherently energy efficient and has been established through very substantial investment by our company over many years. The energy efficiency of the rail system compares extremely favourably to the road transport alternatives used elsewhere in the sugar milling industry.

Tully Sugar Limited continues to improve the efficiency of our cane rail network through ongoing investment. There is an established programme of upgrading the engines of our locomotive fleet to modern, clean, efficient units. Maintaining our cane bin stock to high standards minimises the load on the locomotives hauling the bins. The bin fleet is continually upgraded using new designs that reduce the weight and drag of the bins.

https://asmc.com.au/industry-overview/sugar-facts-electricity-co-generation/

ABOUT US

Tully Sugar Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese agribusiness company COFCO. We operate one of the largest sugar mills in Australia based in the regional township of Tully, located on the Bruce Highway in Far North Queensland.

COFCO | COFCO International

FIND US

1 Hort Street, TULLY Q 4854

Office Phone: +61 7 4068 4777

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