The town of Mackay in northern Queensland has been hit by a disastrous tropical Cyclone. The existing sugar milling facility has been completely wiped out … but the site remains.

The Client has engaged your consulting company to design the replacement plant in Mackay to produce raw sugar and ethanol.

The client also wants the potential market verified.

Currently, the client believes the minimum acceptable throughput would be around 1.7 million tonnes of cane per year (which would occur in seven months of harvesting). They also believe that this
mill should process all the cane produced within a 70 kilometre radius of the mill.

The client is capable of replacing the existing plant (updated with the latest technology), but before doing so wishes to explore the economic returns of a much simpler milling and alcohol
production operation. One alternative the client has highlighted is to mill the sugar cane, extract a first strike crystallisation of raw sugar, and then ferment the residual sugar syrup to
produce fuel grade ethanol. They believe this will give a much simpler and less costly milling process, and take advantage of two product markets, thereby buffering the business against the risks
of the quite variable and at times cyclical raw sugar market. The client has stressed they are also interested in other options providing the benefits of simpler processing and improved economic
returns.

The client is seeking your recommendation on the economic viability of a simpler milling operation which will also produce larger amounts of alcohol for fuel or other uses.
So your company will need to identify and recommend to the client:-
• The likely throughput range, and
• The split between products (raw sugar to the refiner and ethanol)

The raw sugar produced by this mill will go elsewhere to be refined into food grade sugar.

Do Research and Write About:
1. The size of the market (e.g. domestic/international)
2. Raw materials
3. Comparison of alternative raw materials
4. Quantity of raw material available (seasonal)
5. Present & future costs