Most of you know I went to school in Brooklyn.  Right by my favorite bridge in the world- the Brooklyn Bridge.

But, Brooklyn Poly was also near to the old Brooklyn Navy Yards. Which meant it was right by two great chemical engineering facilities (that still operated during my Poly years).  It used to house the corporate headquarters (as well as the original production facilities) of Pfizer.  And, the easily recognized Domino Sugar plant.

Not too far from where I live now is yet another Domino Sugar facility- one that is still critical for the firm.  At the Inner Harbor in Baltimore (MD). And, right now, that plant is going gangbusters!

Sugar production is based upon two different operations.  One involved the processing of the sugar beets or cane sugar into the raw powder.  This powder is then refined- that’s the sugar we normally eat.  The beet and cane crop is replete with sucrose (what we call sugar)- as well as polysaccharides, lignins, proteins, starches, gums, wax, and a bunch of other impurities.  Which is why the raw juice is heated and then limed (which causes the colloidal material and proteins to settle out of solution).

As you can see from the unit operations diagram above, the cane is crushed, with the juice then being heated and filtered, and then is crystallized.  (Centrifugation is effected to spin away any remaining juice or syrup.)   And, then the stuff is ready for market.

Because the terrible US weather (global warming!) has decimated both the sugar cane (Florida, Louisiana, Texas) and sugar beet (more than 50% of US sugar production, primarily in the Northern US states) crops, the US has allowed raw imports from Mexico to double- so the plant can keep running flat out. (It’s been running pretty close to capacity for a while- but now in an ‘historically unprecedented’ full capacity for months on end.  Perhaps as long as 9 months when all is said and done!)

The Locust Point (Baltimore Inner Harbor) plant manages to refine some 6.5 million pounds of raw sugar every single day.  That’s a phenomenal number.  The overall US production is 9 million tons a year, so this plant refines about 1/8 of the entire US haul.  (There are two other  Domino’s plants in Yonkers, NY and Chalmette, LA.)

It’s amazing that the reduced crop yield hasn’t negatively affected the plant operations.  Thankfully, TheDonald hasn’t employed his tariff/import axe on the Mexican sugar imports.  Which also means the 485 employees are doing well financially.  (Maybe not so true personally).  Plus about another 100 to 125 folks involved in the terminal/trucking operations around the plant.  Since they are  working 12 days in row- just getting every other weekend off.  Big  overtime pay!  And,  don’t forget that the base wages are $24 an  hour here

Sweet!

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