Construction on LSR Refinery Gains Momentum

Construction crew positioning steel reinforcement in the foundation of the new LSR refinery.

Construction on the refinery being built by Louisiana Sugar Refining (LSR) crosses a milestone as the foundations for some of its major facilities are poured.

The new refinery, which began construction at the end of 2009, is located in Gramercy, Louisiana, next to Imperial Sugar Company’s (ISC) existing refinery, and is owned jointly by Cargill, ISC and Sugar Growers and Refiners.

Initial work entailed the excavation of a seven-acre parcel of land, driving more than 850 pilings into the ground and preparing preliminary foundation work. This construction set the stage for erecting four new facilities:

• Process/dryer buildings – occupying 35,000 square feet.
• Bulk sugar storage/loading station – 2,000 square feet.
• Raw sugar unloading station – 6,900 square feet.
• Melter station – 3,000 square feet.

Recently, about 300 truckloads – or 3,000 cubic yards – of concrete were poured for the refinery’s process building foundation. The process building is where raw sugar is refined and converted into granulated white sugar and liquid sugar. The steel structure for the building will go up next.

LSR construction site with white Styrofoam spacers.

According to Brian Harrison, vice president of sugar technology for Imperial Sugar, large Styrofoam spacers were placed in non-load-bearing sections of the foundation to save on material costs. Harrison is ISC’s primary liaison for the project and serves on the procurement team.

The de-colorization station housed in the new process building will use a state-of-the-art resin-based technique to refine the color of sugar. This will improve cost of production and process efficiency.

The foundation for the bulk loading and storage building is scheduled to be poured the first week of July, with steel erection following shortly. Here, large quantities of sugar will be stored for loading onto trucks and railcars.

In parallel to the civil and structural activities, some of the equipment to be used in the new buildings is being manufactured – including vacuum pans, the de-colorization system, granulators, material handling systems and packaging machines. Production lead times for equipment range from three to nine months.

Piping, electrical and instrumentation work will take place after the equipment is installed.

The new refinery is scheduled for completion in late spring or early summer 2011. Once operational, it will produce a million tons of sugar per year.