Domino Sugar refinery (Baltimore MD)
The American Sugar Refining Company opened the Baltimore Domino Sugar plant in 1922. The refinery was constructed in an ideal location for the industry, on a deep water port. Sugar cane, which is grown in the tropics and subtropics, is transported to the refinery by large cargo ships. On average, 42 vessels a year deliver raw sugar to the refinery from all over the world. A few times a month, a giant tanker ship docks at the Domino plant. Unloading the raw sugar from the ship, at 10 million pounds per day, usually takes about a week.
The sugar travels by a conveyor belt, swarming with feasting bees, to a massive hangar that can hold up to 100 million pounds of sugar in piles over 60-feet high.
The raw sugar then travels by conveyor belt through a byzantine array of filtration devices and methods–affination, centrifuges, carbonation, charification, vacuum boilers, granulators–up and down the eight stories of the plant, before being stored in silos to await packaging.
Domino’s packaging warehouse looks nothing like the rest of the refinery. High tech machinery spits out more than 350 billion single-serving sugar packets per year. The conveyer belt moves so fast that you need a strobe light to see the packets fly by.
Sugar packets are just one of the 40 different final products–retail and bulk–that the factory produces. FitzGibbon said that the move to an array of value-added products is crucial to remaining profitable.
The refinery in Baltimore produces not just granulated, powdered, and brown sugars, but also flavored sugars, pharmaceutical grade sugars, and other specialty products in a variety of packagings.
Another advantage of the Baltimore refinery is its proximity to major highways like Interstate 95 and Interstate 83. On average, about 33,000 trucks transport products from the facility each year. Trains aid in the transportation of Domino Sugar to national soft drink and food companies across the country.
The “Domino Sugars” blood orange neon sign measures 120-feet by 70-feet, and was installed in 1951 on the roof of the refinery.
Domino Sugar refinery (Baltimore MD)
The American Sugar Refining Company opened the Baltimore Domino Sugar plant in 1922. The refinery was constructed in an ideal location for the industry, on a deep water port. Sugar cane, which is grown in the tropics and subtropics, is transported to the refinery by large cargo ships. On average, 42 vessels a year deliver raw sugar to the refinery from all over the world. A few times a month, a giant tanker ship docks at the Domino plant. Unloading the raw sugar from the ship, at 10 million pounds per day, usually takes about a week.
The sugar travels by a conveyor belt, swarming with feasting bees, to a massive hangar that can hold up to 100 million pounds of sugar in piles over 60-feet high.
The raw sugar then travels by conveyor belt through a byzantine array of filtration devices and methods–affination, centrifuges, carbonation, charification, vacuum boilers, granulators–up and down the eight stories of the plant, before being stored in silos to await packaging.
Domino’s packaging warehouse looks nothing like the rest of the refinery. High tech machinery spits out more than 350 billion single-serving sugar packets per year. The conveyer belt moves so fast that you need a strobe light to see the packets fly by.
Sugar packets are just one of the 40 different final products–retail and bulk–that the factory produces. FitzGibbon said that the move to an array of value-added products is crucial to remaining profitable.
The refinery in Baltimore produces not just granulated, powdered, and brown sugars, but also flavored sugars, pharmaceutical grade sugars, and other specialty products in a variety of packagings.
Another advantage of the Baltimore refinery is its proximity to major highways like Interstate 95 and Interstate 83. On average, about 33,000 trucks transport products from the facility each year. Trains aid in the transportation of Domino Sugar to national soft drink and food companies across the country.
The “Domino Sugars” blood orange neon sign measures 120-feet by 70-feet, and was installed in 1951 on the roof of the refinery.