Zigbee based monitoring and control of melter process in sugar industry

Process control industries like sugar mill, paper manufacturing industries, chemical and petrochemical product manufacturers etc., are running continuously to satisfy the needs of customers. The industrial process are generally monitored and controlled through the Distributed control system. This system requires transformation of data from the field to control room through wired communication system. The enormous changes have been taken right from the origin of process control industries to control such kind of complicated process in wireless manner. This paper demonstrates the monitoring and control of brix measurement in Melter tank of sugar industry by microcontroller and the transmission is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standards This kind of communication is normally called as Wireless Sensor Networks. The objective of Melter process is to maintain the brix (viscosity of cane juice) in an appropriate ratio by employing the steam and hot water to the same. The brix rate of the sugar masseicuite (semisolid state) has been measured using an micro-polar brix sensor. The objective of this paper is to monitor and control the brix in wireless manner using Zigbee network. The above process has been designed using sensor networks and PIC controllers.