1. The student worked as an intern at Mackay Sugar Limited (MSL) for 5 weeks within the Business Improvement division. 2. Key tasks included updating standard operating procedures for clarification processes following a new control system, developing new SOPs for evaporator cleaning, and participating in weekly BI meetings. 3. Through completing these tasks, the student gained valuable experience applying their engineering knowledge, communicating with operators, and understanding the complexities of sugar production and engineering projects within a manufacturing environment.

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Engineering Practice Report
Student Name: Giles Bezzina
Course: Bachelor of Engineering – Chemical Major, 3rd
Year.
Employer: Mackay Sugar Limited
Period: 21st
June 2016 to 22nd
July 2016

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................3
1.1. Mackay Sugar Limited .............................................................................................................3
1.2. Business Improvement Division ...............................................................................................3
1.3. My role within Business Improvement .....................................................................................4
2. Tasks and Duties.............................................................................................................................4
2.1. Familiarisation .........................................................................................................................4
2.2. Updates to clarification stage standard operating procedures.....................................................4
2.3. Standard operating procedure development for evaporator cleaning ..........................................5
2.4. Weekly Meetings .....................................................................................................................6
3. Reflective practice ..........................................................................................................................6
4. Conclusion......................................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
1.1. Mackay Sugar Limited
Mackay Sugar was formed as a co-operative of five formerly independent milling companies
in 1988. Today, Mackay Sugar Limited (MSL) is the second largest producer of raw sugar in
Australia with four mills in operation; Racecourse, Farleigh, Marian and Mossman (north of
Cairns). Their mills are collectively capable of producing in excess of 800 000 tonnes of raw
sugar per season. MSL employs over 600 people on a permanent basis, in addition to 300
seasonal employees between May and December. Over 1600 farming families in the Mackay
and Mossman regions supply sugar cane to MSL. MSL also creates hundreds of secondary
employment opportunities via contracting companies in the Mackay region. As such, the
company is of huge economic importance to the local economy and growth of the region.
MSL is a leader in sustainable industry practices throughout Australia. They demonstrate that
endeavouring to operate sustainably is, contrary to popular belief, beneficial to profit margins.
The business approach of MSL is that “nothing is wasted”. By-products of raw sugar
production are processed to create additional revenue streams and reduce the impact on the
environment and surrounding community. For example, cane fibre (bagasse) is burnt as a
renewable fuel source, which, along with providing heat and energy to run the factories, is
capable of producing enough electricity to power one third of Mackay. By burning bagasse,
rather than coal, for heat production, flue gases are produced with a significantly lower
sulphur content. The flue gas is scrubbed with water to minimize the amount of fly ash and
dust that leaves furnace stacks and settles on the surrounding community. Lastly, the bagasse
ash is combined with precipitates that settle out of the sugar juice to form a mud which is
reused as fertilizer for farms.
1.2. Business Improvement Division
From the 21st
of June 2016 to the 22nd
of July 2016, I was employed at Mackay Sugar Limited
to work at both their Racecourse and Marian offices within the Business Improvement (BI)
division. BI is responsible for the development and management of initiatives, programs and
projects aimed at driving MSL to meet its own high standards of operational excellence. BI
seeks to realise this goal with continuous and flexible review of a number of practices
including, but not limited to, Leading and Managing Change, Teamwork, Asset Care,
Environment, Health and Safety and Visual Management.

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1.3. My role within Business Improvement
During the five weeks with MSL, I was supervised by Dr. Bryan Lavarack, Senior
Technologist of MSL. Dr. Lavarack is, among other roles, responsible for the education and
training of factory personnel and the development of standard operation procedures (SOPs).
The success and growth of MSL relies on the amount of raw sugar that is produced.
Therefore, the training of process personnel and the availability of high quality SOPs is
imperative to maximising production rates. Under the supervision of Dr. Lavarack, I was to
update existing SOPs written for the clarification and evaporation sections of the Marian
factory. I was also tasked with writing new SOPs for operators involved in evaporator
cleaning. These tasks proved to be challenging, interesting and rewarding. I was required to
utilise my existing knowledge of chemical engineering and learn new skills in order to
produce documents that will ultimately contribute to ensuring greater and more consistent
production rates from the Marian factory.
2. Tasks and Duties
2.1. Familiarisation
Producing raw sugar from sugar cane is a complex process. Therefore, before I could attempt
to write instructional documents for employees responsible for the operations of the plant, I
needed to develop a detailed understanding of the process. Dr. Lavarack had me first learn the
process from a theoretical basis using presentations that he gives to new operators. That was
followed up with multiple tours of the Marian plant with continued discussion regarding the
intricacies involved at each station. Finally, on the job learning via communication with
experienced plant operators, supervisors and managers ensured I understood the process to a
degree such that I could confidently update and write SOPs for the clarification and
evaporator stages of the Marian sugar mill.
2.2. Updates to clarification stage standard operating procedures
A transition to a new plant control system (Citect) meant that existing SOPs needed to be
updated. If they were not, operators would be operating the system without supporting
documentation. Repercussions of operating without a standardised procedure could range
from a loss of productivity to a major failure of plant equipment and even the loss of life.

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The process I took for updating a document was as follows:
 Develop a list of updates required for each SOP; for example, an SOP may have
required new screen shots from control screens, images of plant equipment or
restructures of methodology.
 Capture screen shots from the control screen while the plant was in operation
 Find the equipment in the plant and take photographs
 Discuss operating procedures with experienced operators to determine whether
changes to SOPs needed to be made
 Update the SOP with new information and images
 Hand the document over to Dr. Lavarack for review.
In order to complete this task, I was required to effectively communicate with operators, shift
supervisors and managers onsite. Furthermore, to take screen shots of the control system in
operation, I first needed to learn how to operate it. Finally, in order to locate plant equipment,
it was essential that I become proficient at reading and interpreting piping and instrumentation
diagrams (P&IDs).
2.3. Standard operating procedure development for evaporator cleaning
Scale deposits on the surface of sugar mill evaporator tubes result in a reduction of the rate of
heat transfer across that surface. If the rate of heat transfer decreases, the time it takes to
reduce a given volume of juice increases. As a result, chemical cleaning is an ongoing
necessity if production rates are to be maximised. Typically, cleaning is most effective if a
caustic soda boil is followed by a boil of sulphamic acid or ethylenediametetraacetic acid
(EDTA). MSL prepares solutions of each of these chemicals on-site and pumps them into the
vessels. However, SOPs for the preparation and transfer of sulphamic acid and EDTA had not
been developed.
In order to draft SOPs for the aforementioned procedures, effective communication with the
EDTA plant operator, Mr. Wayne Jessup, was essential. Prior to meeting with Mr. Jessup, it
was necessary for me to learn the underlying chemical reactions and processes involved in the
preparation of each of the compounds. Secondly, I reviewed both P&IDs and Citect control
screens of the EDTA plant in order to develop an understanding of plant flow. Finally, I spent
a day in the plant with Mr. Jessup and assisted him in the process whilst documenting the

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steps he took to ensure effective development and timely deployment of chemicals to the
plant.
2.4. Weekly Meetings
I participated in weekly meetings with the Business Improvement Division. Their purpose
was to briefly discuss the tasks from the previous week, the challenges we overcame to
complete the tasks, what work was outstanding and would carry over to the present week and
what work we had planned for the week ahead. These meetings allowed for each participant
to visually assess how their duties tied in with the goals of BI, understand the relevance of
their work to the success of their teammates tasks and MSL as whole. Meeting on a weekly
basis inspired me to work harder and helped to develop a sense of belonging to the team.
Finally, listening to other managers discuss their tasks was a great opportunity for me to
experience the challenges that management presents and the strategies that are implemented
to overcome them.
3. Reflective practice
My brief role at MSL has been very rewarding and beneficial to my development as a
chemical engineer. In developing SOPs, I was required to apply the knowledge that I have
built so far in order to understand the process I was documenting. Additionally, it highlighted
areas where my knowledge is lacking, for example, regarding principles of heat and mass
transfer. The practice also reinforced the importance of having well developed and up-to-date
P&IDs of a plant. One of the most important lessons I learnt, was that a solution does not
always have to be complex and a lot of the time, overthinking a problem can lead to errors
and inefficiency. Furthermore, I learnt the importance of displaying engineering data and
information such that personnel from a non-engineering background can understand it.
Another valuable lesson that I will take away from this experience is that conditions are never
ideal and generally quite variable, as such, an engineer needs to be flexible and able to adapt
to new situations as they present themselves.
From a managerial and organisational perspective, I quickly discovered the difficulties of
communicating ideas from higher level management down throughout the company and vice-
versa. Being part of BI afforded me a unique exposure to the strategies managers implement
in order to overcome these challenges.

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Working at MSL has afforded me the opportunity to experience the relevance of sustainability
in engineering environments first hand. As aforementioned, the process MSL uses to produce
raw sugar and minimize waste streams follows is a great example of an industry that
embodies sustainable processes whilst maintaining growth. Triple bottom line analysis would
have been fundamental to engineers who were ensuring maximum growth and minimum
negative impacts to the environment and community.
4. Conclusion
Working for MSL has been an invaluable learning experience. I have gained a new respect for
the complexities involved in sugar production and the engineering issues involved. I have also
had the opportunity to experience how much interdisciplinary knowledge and cooperation is
required in order to complete projects within the materials processing industry. The role
demonstrated the relevance of the learning objectives of subjects I have learnt throughout my
degree and has given me a new motivation for upcoming subjects.
I have enjoyed every moment of the position and the people that I have worked alongside
over the past five weeks. I would like to thank MSL, Mr. Keenan Jansen, Manager of
Business Improvement, and Dr. Bryan Lavarack for taking the time to teach me and letting
me be a part of the team.