Dudley (Dutch) J Melancon, Jr., Packaging Superintendent at the Gramercy, La refinery, inspects the new Imperial Sugar railcars before loading with sugar.

For 14 years, Don Gilbert has dreamed of seeing Imperial Sugar Company (ISC) railcars painted a bright “Imperial blue” and sporting the company’s logo. His dream has finally true – along with some new features for customers, too.

Thirty new bulk railcars, manufactured by Trinity Rail Industries, are on their way to the Gramercy, La., and Port Wentworth, Ga., refineries, where they’ll be used for transporting refined sugar by rail to customers. Unlike in years past, this batch of railcars is a distinctive bright blue, not grey, and each has its own Imperial Sugar crown.

“The customer will see these cars arrive at their facility, and they’ll know exactly who it is,” says Gilbert, the company’s director of commodities management and logistics. “The cars are recognizable and memorable.”

Don Gilbert, director of commodities management and logistics for Imperial Sugar.

Beyond the blue finish, which was carefully matched to ISC’s logo, the railcars have features important to many customers receiving bulk products by rail.

For example, a “hatch-and-hatch” system on top of each railcar allows for two openings, one small and one large. When loading a railcar, Imperial can use the smaller opening, reducing the possibility of contamination.

Stainless steel gates on the bottom of the railcars, as well as food-grade lining inside of them, allow the transported sugar to quickly empty out. Those features make it easier for a customer, after receiving a car full of refined sugar, to open the gate and unload.
The number of railcars in Imperial Sugar’s fleet is now just under 600. As the company expands its fleet, Gilbert says, every new railcar will be built with customer-friendly features such as the hatch-and-hatch system, food-grade lining and stainless steel gate.

And, he hopes, they’ll be painted in that same distinctive blue.

Consumers continue to clamor for foods and drinks sweetened with all-natural sugar. Products such as Heinz and Hunt’s ketchup, Pepsi Throwback, Snapple, Gatorade, and Wheat Thins are just a few of the household names to answer the call. Click here for a current list.

Andy Briscoe, President & CEO, The Sugar Association.

Starbucks, one of the nation’s biggest restaurant chains, summed up its decision to use sugar in its food products: “We heard loud and clear from our customers that they want food, when they purchase food at Starbucks, to be made of high quality ingredients and from simple recipes.”

Of course, those same consumers would probably be fuming if many of these same manufacturers scrapped all-natural sugar and replaced it with artificial or man-made sweeteners, such as neotame, sorbitol, and polydextrose.

A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 52 percent of parents make a conscious effort to avoid artificial sweeteners, yet few are actually able to identify common sweeteners used in food products.

With such overwhelming evidence that consumers want natural products like sugar, you might think a move to artificials would never happen. Think again.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are currently being revised, and the federal government is under pressure to recommend limiting Americans’ sugar intake to as little as possible. If this happens, manufacturers would be left with little recourse but to reformulate their recipes.

And if they reformulate, many consumers may not even realize it.

When shown the ingredient label of a popular children’s product, given to dehydrated infants, only four percent of parents could identify all the sweeteners. About one in seven (13 percent) parents couldn’t identify any of the four sweeteners used.

Considering 87 percent of parents say the sweetener used in a product is at least somewhat important to them when making food decisions for their kids, they have a desire and right to know what sweeteners they are feeding their family.

The Sugar Association has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to follow Canada’s lead and clear up consumer confusion with front-of-package labeling for artificial sweeteners. For nearly five years, this petition has been tangled in government red tape while new sweeteners come on the market each year and some even change their names to be less recognizable.

Andy Briscoe, President and CEO of the Sugar Association said, “We know consumers are confused by the more than 25 sweeteners being used in the U.S. market. Consumers have a right to know what is in their food, and the current FDA labeling standards aren’t working.”

We’re confident that when given all the facts, Americans will make the same choice people have made for more than 2,000 years: sugar.

Eric Terry, char house operator in Imperial Sugar Company’s Port Wentworth refinery, returned to work after being stationed in the Afghan city of Jalalabad with the U.S. Army.

Today, Eric Terry works as a char house operator in Imperial Sugar Company’s Port Wentworth refinery. This time last year, he was in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, serving in the U.S. Army as a gunner – one of the soldiers who rides on top of a tank or Humvee, manning a .50-caliber or M240B machine gun.

“I was proficient with the really big guns,” Terry says, “so they put me on that job.”

Riding in a Humvee made him a regular target for roadside bomb attacks, so he feels “fortunate to make it back.” In the same breath, though, he humbly points out that he was simply doing his job in Afghanistan – just like he’s doing his job here.

His military service began in 2005, when he joined the 48th Infantry Brigade of the Georgia National Guard. At the time, he felt he “wanted some direction and to be a part of something.” He entered boot camp for 18 weeks at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which was every bit as rigorous as people say: “You pretty much train from 4 a.m. when you wake up, until two hours before you bed down. Every day, for 18 weeks.”

With his training complete, “you go back to the civilian world to do your job and take care of your family,” he explains. His involvement with the National Guard was scaled back to training once a month during the year, with a two-week training stint during the summer.

And then, his unit was called up for active duty.

Terry left Savannah in January 2009 to spend six months in training before being deployed to Jalalabad for 10 months. It meant leaving his wife and baby boy, Bryson, behind. “I missed his first steps, his first words –- everything,” he says.

Terry rides on top of a tank or Humvee, manning a .50-caliber or M240B machine gun, similar to this military photo of an Afghan patrol.

Deployment is tough on a family, but so is the transition when a soldier returns. When he first returned home in April 2010, he spent a lot of time with his son to recapture “that bond,” he says. For the months that Terry was gone, he and his wife had told Bryson that Daddy was at work.

Coming home meant returning to work for Imperial Sugar Company – where he had been employed for the two years before deploying. When Terry returned to Savannah, the company “put me where they needed me,” says Terry – the char house. “My job at Imperial is really important to me, because it helps me support people who were supporting me while I was in Afghanistan.”

He has nothing but positive words for his co-workers, who have told him how much they value his brave service in Afghanistan. And the experience of serving in the military has made him even more thankful for and aware of what he has.

“It helps me appreciate what I have back home more,” he says. “As a man, I think I’m a little more grown-up than I was before.”

Terry will be with the National Guard until next year. He knows there is a chance he’ll be called up for active duty again. For now, though, he isn’t thinking about it. He’s too busy adjusting to his new role in the char house and playing toy trains with Bryson.

“We want to move beyond vendor to valued partner,” said Lucas, national sales director, industrial channel, at Imperial. “That means establishing deeper, multi-tier customer relationships from a marketing and R&D perspective.”
For Lucas, being a valued partner will require Imperial to position itself as a sweetener solutions company – one that not only provides sugar, but also works closely with its customers to develop innovative sweetener products.

Lucas said that when introducing a new product to customers, Imperial will take extra steps to help them determine how to best use and market the product and ensure its success.

Joe Lucas, national sales director, industrial channel, at Imperial Sugar.

“We will be working hand-in-hand with the Imperial product development team and our customers,” said Lucas. “The team will not only talk to our customers’ R&D people, but also to their marketing groups to discuss at length the features, benefits and applications of our sweeteners at a more technical level.”

Growing the company’s presence throughout North America and maximizing value creation from its joint ventures and alliances – an Imperial core business strategy – will be integral to Lucas’ consultative sales approach. Those joint ventures include Comercializadora Santos Imperial, a sugar producer based in Monterrey, Mexico, and Natural Sweet Ventures, which is developing Stevia-based sweetening products.

Sugar production in Mexico will play a bigger role when Imperial’s domestic production for industrial customers shifts solely to its Port Wentworth, Ga., refinery next year. Also, new stevia-based products will help establish a broader base for Imperial’s sweetening solutions.

Lucas pointed to a meeting with a major food manufacturer at the 2010 International Sweetener Colloquium to show how Imperial can use these ventures to the customer’s advantage.

There, he and Imperial CEO and President John Sheptor shared with the customer how stevia/cane sugar blended sweeteners could be used in its products to leverage the benefits of sugar as well as caloric reduction. They also discussed Imperial’s ability to supply sugar in Mexico, which is very important to this company because it has a large manufacturing operation in Monterrey.

“Prior to that meeting, we’d be looked at only as a supplier who shipped the customer sugar out of our two U.S. plants,” said Lucas. “By the time we were finished, they saw us as a sweetener solutions provider – not only in the U.S., but also in Mexico. In other words, we were no longer perceived as just a cane sugar provider.”

Discussing the challenges and opportunities ahead, Lucas said Imperial is very focused on service in anticipation of its move to a single, U.S. plant operation for industrial customers. This change will occur once Louisiana Sugar Refining – a joint venture in which Imperial is one-third owner – opens its large new plant in Gramercy, La.

Raw sugar at Imperial Sugar's Gramercy refinery.

Imperial plans to place a bulk transfer station in Monterrey as early as the fall to expedite the shipping of sugar across the border and help fill the gap. “We’re fully anticipating that our operations in Mexico and the increased capacity of our Port Wentworth refinery will fill the Southwest market with the industrial volume we have in Gramercy,” said Lucas. “We are not abandoning this market at all.”

According to Lucas, service is already improving and customers are highly impressed with the newly modernized Port Wentworth facility.

Recently, about 20 customers got a first-hand look at the rebuilt plant during an Imperial combustible dust seminar. One customer said: “For six years, I’ve been responsible for combustible dust and safety at our company’s facility. I came in thinking I knew everything and was prepared to be bored for two days. After the first five minutes of a presentation before the actual tour, I knew I was wrong.”

Lucas believes the seminar and tour positioned Imperial as a strong partner for its customers. He said customers walked away with a new appreciation for Imperial’s dedication to safety and operational excellence, as well as for its openness in sharing all it had learned from the explosion that occurred there in early 2008.

“We’re really excited about the opportunity in front of us. It’s all driving toward the idea that we’re not just a sugar company, we’re a sweetener solutions company,” said Lucas. “When customers think of sweeteners, we believe they’ll think of Imperial first.”

Before joining Imperial, Lucas worked for Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa, chocolate and confectionery products.

Pat Henneberry, senior vice president of commodities for Imperial Sugar Company.

Even with a lot of market changes worldwide, the outlook for raw sugar reflects “a relatively tight supply and demand,” says Pat Henneberry, senior vice president of commodities for Imperial Sugar Company.

Based on the USDA’s July report for World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), Henneberry says: “We’re viewing the market as relatively firm for the rest of this fiscal year, ending in September.

“And the beginning of the succeeding year should also be firm because quota supplies won’t become readily available until the new crops in Central America that start in November and December.”

WASDE is the monthly report by the Department of Agriculture about the supply and demand of major domestic and foreign crops and U.S. livestock.

To hear more from Henneberry about the July WASDE report, please view this video.

The July 2010 WASDE report from USDA showed an 11.8 % ending stocks/use ratio for 2009-10 and a 9.0 % ending stocks/use ratio form 2010-11. If not for the 270,000 tons of additional imports as per the TRQ increase, the ending stocks/use ratio for 2009-10 would have dropped to 9.3 % from the 10.7 % in the June report.

Looking at 2009-10, the beet crop estimate was reduced by 50,000 tons due to lower than expected output from the old crop in May. The estimate of Florida production was increased by 8,000 tons. On the import front, the USDA added 270,000 tons of TRQ, assuming a 30,000 shortfall on the increase quantity and a 133,000 ton shortfall overall. This was partially offset by an 110,000 ton reduction in the estimate of Mexican imports from 540,000 to 430,000 based on the pace of imports to date (302,277 tons through the end of May). The impressive tail on the Mexican crop and related dip in prices will allow for at least a couple of cargoes of estandar to be shipped, and the new estimate may well prove a bit on the low side when all is said and done. On balance, the total supply was thus increased by 118,000 tons to 12.033 million tons. One or two high tier raws cargoes have already been landed in the US, suggesting that the USDA’s high tier import estimate of 75,000 tons for 2009-10 is too low.

Frank Jenkins of The Jenkins Sugar Group.

Somewhat surprisingly, the demand side of the ledger was left alone. Demand for 2009-10 is thus remains 1.12 % down from 2008-09. The April Sweetener market Data report (displayed below) shows US deliveries for human us and products for re-export up 7.4 %, led by the bottling sector which is up a staggering 29.3 % year-on-year. For 2010-11, the USDA shows US food use declining by a further ½ percent. If each year showed an actual increase of 2.0 % this would amount to nearly 600,000 tons of demand over the 24 months. 2010-11 ending stocks would be 355,000 tons and the ending stocks/use ratio would be 3.2 %.

For 2010-11, the beet crop estimate was increased by 80,000 tons to 4.710 million tons and the Texas cane crop estimate was reduced by 10,000 tons to 140,000 tons. Thus 2010-11 ending stocks are estimated at 952,000 tons, or 9.0 % of use.

The Mexican estimate is beginning to resemble a parlor trick, where no matter which or how many components are changed, the ending stocks figure never changes. In the most recent iteration, production for 2009-10 was increased by 35,000 tons, imports decrease by 135,000 and exports reduced by 100,000 and – voila! – ending stocks are unchanged at 868,000 tons. (Last month production was increased by 185,000 tons, neatly offset by a 15,000 ton reduction in imports and a 170,000 ton increase in domestic consumption, keeping the 868,000 tons ending stock figure intact.) We do not see how Mexico will bridge to the new crop without additional imports. The import number in today’s report assumes a few hundred thousand tonnes of additional imports before the end of September, and the export number is now a bit too low. Thus, it appears that Mexico will have only about six week’s worth of stocks on September 30th, roughly eight to 10 weeks before any meaningful new crop production is available. This will leave Mexico in the unenviable position of trying to import refined sugar ahead of the new crop, alongside Thailand, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic in addition to the usual suspects such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iraq.

We believe that the two quota increases seen recently have put the market on a better footing, but it is clear that the market is still extremely tight. Two simple measure of this are that the 2010-11 beginning stocks are estimated to be 231,000 tons lower than the 2009-10 carry-in – a stock situation that provided for all of the angst, gnashing of teeth and historically unprecedented pricing seen in the past six months. Secondly, in our update following the May WASDE report, we posed the question “If an 11.6 % stocks/use ratio in the April WASDE justified a 200,000 ton quota increase, does an 11.6 % stocks/use ratio in May call for another 200,000 tonne increase?” It turned out that the 10.7 % ratio in the June report called for a 300,000 ton increase, so the math is pretty consistent. So – what does the 11.8 % ratio in today’s report indicate? We doubt we will hear from the USDA again this year, aside from perhaps an early 2010-11 TRQ announcement, and feel the market will be perilously tight as a result – even if the dubious use estimate in today’s report proves accurate.

It is easy to get used to looking at the current S&D and be lulled into a false sense of security. Surely 11.8 % is more accommodating than 10.7 %. Should the 11.8 % ending stocks/use ratio prove accurate, it would be unprecedented. The average ending stocks/use ratio for the past decade is 16.89 %. The difference is roughly 550,000 tons of inventory.

Despite the very welcomed and skillfully allocated quota increases, we still see the market as undersupplied through October and believe that additional high tier imports will be needed in August and/or September to make ends meet. The stage is set to ensure that the 2010-11 futures positions will hold to a 27.00 to 30.00 range and that refined prices will hold in the upper 30 cent range, if not the recently announce 43.00 rate.

Read The Jenkins Sugar Group online.

John Sheptor, CEO and Chairman of Imperial Sugar.

Imperial Sugar Company’s (ISC) settlement with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) now positions the company to focus even more on improving workplace safety and driving its best practices across the food-processing industry worldwide.

“Imperial Sugar is pleased to resolve the citations,” said CEO and President John Sheptor. “Imperial agreed to the terms with OSHA in order to settle these matters expeditiously and amicably, and to allow us to better concentrate our resources toward not only enhancing the safety of our own facilities, but also to assist the sugar industry as a whole in addressing workplace hazards.”

Imperial Sugar was cited by OSHA in July 2008 for alleged safety violations at its Port Wentworth and Gramercy, La., facilities with a combined proposed penalty totaling $8.7 million.

As ISC rebuilt its Port Wentworth operations after a deadly explosion and fire, Sheptor led the company in creating an industry model for better worker safety, improved food-quality processes and greater manufacturing efficiencies.

Since the OSHA citations were issued, Imperial Sugar has worked with leading experts to collect and develop, through testing and other research efforts, information about the hazards of combustible dust specific to the sugar industry.

Ronald Allen, Sr. Director of Environmental Health and Safety

Sheptor noted: “Imperial’s extensive studies have guided us in implementing new hazard controls as we rebuilt our Port Wentworth facility as well as our existing facility in Gramercy.”

Ron Allen, senior director of environmental health and safety, is among the hundreds of leaders and employees at ISC’s refineries in Port Wentworth and Gramercy who’ve worked side-by-side to develop new standards and raise performance levels – benefiting the company and the sugar industry alike.

Allen, who also is the company’s chief safety officer, says Imperial Sugar’s efforts and solutions over the past couple of years have involved several areas, including:

• Improved engineering controls: ISC conducted thorough studies comparing its operations against National Fire Protection Association Standards – done with the support of globally recognized experts in the field of combustible dust.
• Stronger administrative controls: The company introduced new housekeeping procedures, as well as preventative maintenance, to ensure that conditions don’t develop that could lead to a combustible dust explosion.
• Rigorous employee training: Imperial Sugar developed professionally recognized, computer-based training modules on combustible dust, which didn’t exist previously.

“We have learned much from our experts and our own studies regarding combustible dust, and we are sharing our knowledge throughout the industry to help others to be aware of the hazards of combustible dust,” Sheptor says.

Port Wentworth silo relief panels.

The results of ISC’s research and initiatives continue to be shared with global sugar manufacturers and trade associations, as well as with ISC customers – many of whom handle combustible food materials in their own business.

Allen is quick to point how Imperial Sugar collaborated with OSHA officials in striving to raise industry safety standards for manufacturers by promoting a new combustible dust standard for OSHA, along with spreading the word through public forums for improvements.

Sheptor commended OSHA for its dedication to worker safety, and reiterated Imperial Sugar’s commitment to adhering to and exceeding its obligations under the OSH Act. “We are working diligently to become our industry leader in workplace safety.”

Reinforced packaging walls at Gramercy plant.

Reflecting on everyone’s dedication and diligence, Allen says: “When we do our work, often times it’s really in memory in those who lost their lives and in our commitment to not allow that to happen again.

“So, the progress we’ve made at Imperial is, in a large part, a tribute to the memories of whose lives were lost or were injured.”

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.

Demand for sugar is on the rise, and the Imperial Sugar Port Wentworth plant is responding to that demand.

Setting goals and surpassing them has become familiar terrain for Imperial Sugar Company’s (ISC) Port Wentworth packaging operators. Recently, packaging operators on several different lines whizzed past yet another goal by sealing up 2.66 million pounds of sugar in one day – a packaging record for the refinery since reopening in November 2009.

“A handful of months ago, we were attempting to package 1.8 million pounds of sugar per day,” recalls William McGhee, packaging team manager. “Once we achieved that, we started reaching for 2 million pounds. Once we got to the 2 million plateau, we aimed for 2.4 million, then later 2.6 million. In that final attempt, we reached and went above our goal.”

Demand for sugar is high, which is why the team has continually upped the number of 2,400-pound totes, 50-pound bags and five-pound bags it hopes to package in a day. This team handles only “small-pack” sugar, not the sugar being distributed by bulk trailer or rail.

William McGee likes breaking one production goal after another.

“We have so much demand for totes, five-pound and 50-pound bags right now, they want us to run those lines at full capacity,” says McGhee.

For the tote operators, the record-setting day was a victory because it was their best sustained run yet – with a grand total of 145 totes packaged. These totes, at 2,400 pounds each, are bound for industrial customers, who create part of the “strong and heavy” demand for ISC sugar, says McGhee.

The operators packaging 50-pound bags – called the “Thiele operators,” after the name of the equipment they operate – achieved a landmark number of bags without technician assistance. “In the past, when we’ve had record days on that equipment, we’ve had technicians from the manufacturing company here on site doing qualifying runs with it,” McGhee says. “So, they were happy to accomplish this on their own.”

On the five-pound bag equipment, he adds, “It was satisfying for those operator mechanics to produce high numbers because they truly ‘own their equipment,’ doing all their own repairs and preventive maintenance. So much of their personal work goes into that equipment.”

The team of packaging operators couldn’t have exceeded their goal on their own, though, notes McGhee. A high-achieving packaging team needs a steady supply of bulk sugar coming in, and a smooth process for moving the packaged product out. It was “very much a joint effort,” he says.

With another goal shattered, McGhee and team now look optimistically toward the next goal: 3 million pounds packaged per day. Says McGhee, “The operators know they can do it. They say, as long as we have sugar, they can run it.”

When Kevin Jeffries, Imperial Sugar Company’s corporate safety systems manager, recently spoke about “the science of dust explosions” during Customer Safety Day, he began with a fundamental truth not everyone knows: Under the right conditions, most finely ground organic materials, when dispersed in air, can ignite and lead to an explosion.

“I wanted to bring everyone’s level of awareness up,” Jeffries says. “Since our customers are often handling not just sugar, but flour, cornstarch and other material, my goal was to help them understand the potential hazards and how certain factors relate to their specific operation.”

The potential hazard can be best understood by examining what Jeffries calls the “pentagon of combustible dust.”

Kevin Jeffries, Imperial Sugar Company’s corporate safety systems manager, speaks about “the science of dust explosions” beginning with a fundamental truth not everyone knows: Under the right conditions, most finely ground organic materials, when dispersed in air, can ignite and lead to an explosion.

“A source of ignition, fuel (the dust), oxygen, confinement and dispersion – you’ve got to have all five of these things before you can have a dust explosion,” he says.

While a dust fire occurs when combustible dust is exposed to heat in the presence of air, a dust explosion requires the simultaneous presence of two additional elements – dust suspension and confinement. Suspended dust burns more rapidly and confinement allows for pressure buildup.

Removal of either the suspension or the confinement elements prevents an explosion, although a fire may still occur.

“An explosion happens quickly, think milliseconds … the event often occurs inside equipment – silos, granulators, bucket elevators, enclosed conveyor belts or powder mills,” he added. “Dust accumulations on rafters, beams and building steel can also be a concern.’’

A combustible dust is, technically, “any finely divided solid material that is 420 microns or smaller in diameter,” according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). How dense that dust is will control how combustible it is. Engineers measure the Minimum Explosible Concentration (MEC) inside process equipment – such as conveyors and silos – to see whether the amount of dust dispersed in air is concentrated enough to spread an explosion.

For example, explains Jeffries, with an MEC concentration of coal dust in the air, a 25-watt light bulb six feet away from you would not be visible.

To gauge the likelihood of explosion and the potential intensity of an explosion, engineers also can measure Minimum Ignition Energy (how much energy is required to ignite a dust cloud), Minimum Ignition Temperature (the temperature that will ignite a dust cloud), Kst (the maximum rate of pressure rise) and Pmax (the maximum explosion pressure).

Engineers use some of these calculations, such as Kst and Pmax, to design venting or isolation systems that prevent explosions.

“No one wants an explosion to happen,” he says. “But the best guidelines and standards tell us to design pressure-release or isolation systems, and to design walls that absorb and deflect energy generated by a blast.”

Jeffries emphasizes that no one wants an explosion.

As guests on Customer Safety Day – almost all of whom had engineering or other technical backgrounds – toured the refinery with Jeffries, many had questions about dust-collection systems and other state-of-the-art techniques now in place at the Port Wentworth refinery. Even among engineers, Jeffries says, many people “just don’t fully understand the qualities of combustible dust.”

The consensus standards published by the NFPA aren’t easily found and aren’t widely known within the industry, though they have been around for decades. Adding to the knowledge gap is the fact that different states have different fire codes, and inspectors may have different levels of experience. That’s one reason OSHA recently re-started its National Emphasis Program on combustible dust to allow for more education, outreach and inspection.

Jeffries says helping Imperial Sugar’s customers be more aware of prevention tactics was a primary goal of his “science of dust explosions” presentation. The company’s management and engineering team has gained extensive knowledge from the process-safety experts at Chilworth Technology Group, which was brought in as consultants for the rebuilding of the Port Wentworth refinery.

“If we can give that information to a customer in an eight-hour segment, so he can make a determination for his own facility, then we’ve done our job. We don’t want to be one of those companies that hordes information. We want to share what we know with others.”

Smith, who holds a bachelor’s degree in bakery science from Kansas State University, was recruited by Imperial Sugar from Kerry Ingredients. At Kerry, she helped develop sweet ingredients for the frozen dessert market, including such firms as Ben & Jerry’s. Before that, Smith worked at American Ingredients and International Multifoods, for a total of eight years in the food manufacturing industry.

Imperial Sugar Company recently added a new member to its R&D team: Food Scientist Emily Smith.

“I joined Imperial’s R&D team to help develop value-added specialty products in line with the company’s new direction,” says Smith. “Our goal is to expand the product portfolio and serve the customer in new and better ways.”

With a robust commodities business already in place, Imperial Sugar continues to develop new products that deliver more value to customers and bring higher margins to the company. Steviacane™ is one such product.

Steviacane is a 100-percent natural sweetener that delivers a reduction in calories from sugar based on the Steviacane product used. It is produced through a patented process in which cane sugar and stevia, a sweetener derived from the leaves of the Stevia plant, are combined into an easy-to-use granulated product.

To help perfect its taste and performance profile, Smith is doing some application work with Steviacane and testing it with food items consumers typically prepare with sugar. Recently, in an informal test, she baked several batches of sugar cookies: one with sugar and one with the new Steviacane sweetener. These were then handed out to friends and co-workers to get their reactions.

The responses to the cookies using Steviacane have been positive – with no bitter after taste reported, as is usually the case with stevia sweeteners now on the market. A series of formal sensory panels will follow.

Smith sees many opportunities for Imperial Sugar to grow in the sweetener solutions market. “New sugar-based sweeteners have the potential to be used in just about anything, including cakes, cookies, soda, coffee – whatever people might want to put them in. We want to help people economize on time and money, eat healthy and still enjoy a great-tasting product from a brand they know and love.”

“Producers made some statements in the last couple of days that potentially prices are going to pull back a little bit,” said Richard Ilczyszyn, a senior market strategist at Lind- Waldock, a broker in Chicago. The market was “getting a little bit exhausted to the upside. Some of the technical indicators are indicating it’s a little bit overdone,” he said.

Prices climbed in the previous five sessions, jumping 12 percent. Sugar has slumped 41 percent this year, partly on speculation that global production will increase.

Read the full story … click here.

William McGee, packaging team manager at the Port Wentworth plant, inspects work on the updating of the brown sugar packaging line to improve production yields.

Packaging Team Manager William McGhee receives a “statement of yield” every month, which tells him how much sugar the Port Wentworth refinery has produced and how much it should have produced – based on the raw sugar the refinery started with.

“You want the yield to be high,” says McGhee. The refinery always loses a very small amount during the production process, but McGhee’s aim is to package and make available for selling 99 percent of the original volume of raw sugar.

He suspected that two of the bagging machines – called FAWEMA #9 and FAWEMA #10, named after the manufacturer – were “giving away” sugar with each package and decreasing the yield. So, he had a DMAIC team do an analysis, starting with the FAWEMA #9 machine that typically packages 10-pound bags of extra-fine granulated sugar.

DMAIC – which stands for define, measure, analyze, improve and control – is a Six Sigma approach used to determine root causes of problems in manufacturing or other processes. In this instance, the team randomly pulled 100 bags off the line, weighed them and did some number-crunching.

What the team learned is that the average “giveaway” – or the average amount of extra sugar going into bags – was 45.2 grams per bag. That’s a giveaway of approximately 1 percent. “We saw an opportunity for improvement there,” says McGhee.

Overfilling packages decreases total plant yield.

“If I produce five million pounds of sugar, I want 100 percent of that sugar to be sold at the maximum selling price. Overfilling bags means giving away product, which decreases our yield. ”

The DMAIC approach is particularly useful in a case like this because the analysis helps a business see what could be affecting yield. In measuring and taking stock of the process, says McGhee, “you’re trying to find out if you’re running your process in control, whether you’re staying close to what that target weight is.”

The team quickly did a DMAIC analysis to determine where on the FAWEMA #9 machine the company was losing time or incurring waste. Team members included Willie Jenkins, Willie Johnson, both FAWEMA operators; electrician Michael Anderson; mechanic Rodney Crutfield; and supervisor Tyrone Pinckney.

“Typically, what’s most hurtful to your process is lost time,” says McGhee. “Because if you’re not producing, you’re not making money.”

One of the big learnings can be seen in a Pareto chart that shows how much downtime FAWEMA #9 experienced. “We found that the biggest cause of downtime was operator breaks. So, we found a way to have someone else relieve those workers, and we immediately gained over an hour every day that we were losing to breaks,” McGhee points out.

The team also learned the equipment wasn’t running at the design rate. Every piece of equipment comes with an optimal running speed, which is based on the capability of all the parts. When FAWEMA installed the equipment, the company provided a design rate for it.

What happens over time, though, is that often when operators have minor problems on the line, they slow down the rate slightly – giving the equipment longer to a complete a cycle. Those minor adjustments add up, however.

By increasing the rate to bring it closer to its design rate, FAWEMA #9 went from packaging 10-pound bags of extra-fine granulated sugar at a rate of 40 bags per minute to 50 bags per minute.

“We gave ourselves the opportunity to produce 600 more bags every hour of the 10-pound bags,” McGhee says. “We built more capability into our hourly production rate just by increasing the speed.”

And while DMAIC teams typically do a fresh analysis with each piece of equipment or process, some of the learnings from the FAWEMA analysis – such as the new approach to operators taking breaks – will translate to the FAWEMA #10 machine, as well as to the packaging process for different sized packages.

“The original formula of Dublin Dr Pepper has been made for 119 years – every single time with Imperial pure cane sugar,” says Lori Dodd, special events coordinator at Dublin Dr Pepper.

Dublin Dr Pepper celebrated 119-years of continuous bottling with sand sculptures by Jon Woodworth and Miss Pretty Peggy Pepper.

In the early ‘70s when high fructose corn syrup became an alternative for sweetening soft drinks, Dublin Dr Pepper made the decision to stay with Imperial Sugar as its sweetener. Dodd says the company’s concern for customer preference was a more important consideration than the lower cost of corn syrup.

Dublin Dr Pepper is a company long on tradition. The bottling equipment used in the plant today dates back as far as the 1920s, including the syrup dispenser (1936 ) and the mixer (1920s), which is so old the company doesn’t even have the manual for it. The newest piece of equipment, the bottle washer, was deployed in 1965. The bottling equipment only works with the bottles made between 1950 and 1990.

As an event sponsor, Imperial Sugar hosted a tent, where visitors decorated about 600 sugar cookies with its new line of Baker’s Supreme Premium Frosting Mixes. “It was a hit with the young and the young at heart,” says Emily Smith, ISC food scientist who passed out cookies.

Both companies had their beginnings in the 1800s – Imperial Sugar in 1843 and Dr Pepper in 1891. “Imperial Sugar has had a very long relationship here with Dr Pepper,” says Bob Fleenor, regional sales manager for ISC’s industrial division. “They’re an excellent and much-appreciated partner, and we look forward to a strong relationship in the future.”

Fleenor says Imperial Sugar anticipates its role as a sweetener solutions provider to Dublin Dr Pepper will expand to other bottlers. He credits the Dublin company for promoting the use of natural cane sugar.