Sugar Mills Go for Ethanol Production

BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production, Brazil, Business News/Analysis, Feedstocks, Field/Orchard/Plantation Crops/Residues, Funding/Financing/Investing, India, Marketing/Markets and Sales, Opinions, Policy

July 22, 2019

Print This Article Share it With Friends

by Navtan Kumar (Sunday Guardian Live) Indian sugar mills are gradually shifting towards ethanol production in the wake of surplus sugar production in the last few years. Ethanol is increasingly becoming popular as a green, non-polluting fuel.

According to an India Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) official, in the current season (October 2018- September 2019) so far, about 29.5 crore litres of ethanol have been supplied to oil manufacturing companies, and this is equivalent to sugar diversion of about 3 lakh tonnes. These mills have offered to supply 51 crore litres of ethanol, produced from heavy molasses/sugarcane juice for the first time, which will lead to a reduction in sugar production by 5 lakh tonnes.

…

The government, on its part, has been asking sugar mill owners to switch to ethanol production to tackle the problems stemming from surplus production and falling prices. State governments are being asked to expedite the permission requests from sugar mills for converting from sugar to ethanol, within a week or so. Sources said it is not possible to reduce the surplus production of sugar and it is also difficult to change the crop patterns, and sugar mills are forced to decide whether they want to make sugar or ethanol from sugarcane juice.

…

A few months ago, the Centre approved incentives worth Rs 3,300 crore to help sugar mills boost ethanol production capacity. The diversion, the government hopes, will improve the financial health of these sugar mills, which are suffering losses. READ MORE

Ethanol turns into a cash cow for India’s sugar mills (KNECT365)

Comments are closed.

Advanced BioFuels USA