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 TOWARDS
ETHANOL
Ethanol, a
by-product of the sugar industry, is a good oxygenate and,
when used as a blend with motor spirit, substantially
reduces vehicular emissions and the resultant pollution.
With the increasing demand for this by-product, we are
looking at ethanol production as one of the major thrust
areas for future. Our 30 KL per day of industrial alcohol
unit had commenced production in February 2005.
In the year 2009-2010 , we generated revenue of Rs. 799.83
lacs through this business. In the year 2010-2011, the
Company had produced and sold Spirit in place of ethanol to
get the maximum benefit from its distillery plant. The
Company had sold 44.51 Lacs Liters Spirit for a value of Rs
1183.28 Lacs.
Ethanol is one of the additives in petrol. The mixing of
ethanol with petrol has been made mandatory in nine states
including the state of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra etc. The government of India
is keen to increase the mixing percentage from 5% to 10% and
that too in all states of India. According to a report by
HDFC Securities, ethanol is set to become a stable revenue
stream for the sugar industry because the global trend of
using greater percentage of ethanol in petroleum will catch
up in India.
How alcohol is produced:
Molasses, one of the by-products in sugar industry is a
dark, viscous by-product and has nearly 45-50% of
fermentable sugar. In a distillery sugar from molasses is
fermented, distilled to manufacture industrial alcohol. The
industrial alcohol in turn can further be used for
manufacture of IMFL and Country Liquor.
With certain add-on facilities the industrial alcohol can be
further refined to produce absolute alcohol or gasohol, an
eco-friendly substitute for fuel to be used in petrol driven
vehicles. The use of gasohol as substitute for fuel offers
exciting opportunity to conserve the scarce foreign exchange
reserves of the country. |
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