Code No: TMS077 Price: 950 Category: Foods & Agriculture: Sugar Industry By Products
1. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1.1 The report shall clearly bring out the following:
- Relationship and the importance of the specific topic to the broad area to which it belongs (in brief).
- The current status of the technology in the world and in the country. Market (domestic/export) sizes and their potentials. (Use existing information/reports to the maximum extent possible).
- Assessment of the technology, resource parameters such as energy, raw material infrastructure and manpower etc. to arrive at preferred technology options available to the country.
- Short term & long term economic aspects of preferred options alongwith their feasibilities.
- Impact of the preferred option(s) by itself and its spin offs.
- Recommendations
- For implementations of preferred technology option(s) indicating critical inputs such as raw material, capital goods and human resources required and their availability, investments required to commercialize, and benefits/returns expected. Maximum possible quantification is required.
- For R&D / Technology development indicating the requirement of inputs and expected benefits.
- Action Plan for implementation of recommendations alongwith identification of:
- List of available technologies for Indian industry and
- The agencies/groups/individuals for implementation.
- Expected impact of recommendations, if implemented
2. RELATIONSHIP AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TOPIC TO THE BROAD AREA TO WHICH IT BELONGS
2.1 MOLASSES – A VALUABLE BY-PRODUCT
- Being one of the largest producers of sugar in the world, India produces a large quantity of molasses. Molasses is mainly used for producing alcohol, which forms an indigenously available feedstock for a vast range of value added downstream organic chemicals in addition to potable alcohol.
- Apart from alcohol, molasses is also used in production of citric acid, lactic, acid, oxalic acid, etc.
- Molasses is also used as cattle feed.
2.2 NEED FOR BETTER EFFICIENCIES IN MOLASSES HANDLING AND UTILISATION
- Many of these chemicals produced from molasses are also produced through the petroleum route. The petroleum products are largely imported. Therefore, mounting crude oil import bill and escalating chemical prices I the international markets increase the reliance on indigenously available feed stock for chemicals.
2.3 HIGH ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND COST INEFFICIENCIES IN PRODUCTION OF MOLASSES BASED PRODUCTS
- In India the largest application of molasses is for production of alcohol. Although proven indigenous technologies are available for alcohol manufacture, the yields and quality need lot of improvement.
- Storage and transportation methods of molasses employed by user as well as producer units need correction as substantial amount of molasses go waste. Although the reasons for improper handling of molasses is more administrative than technological, the storage and transportation methods of molasses in the country need several improvements. Hence, technology upgradation and development of appropriate strategies and plans need a lot of emphasis.
3. METHODOLOGY ADOPTED
3.1 SECONDARY SURVEY
- To collect information from published sources on the size and performace of domestic as well as international markets and on organizations involved in supplying technologies for sugar, molasses and molasses based products.
3.2 PRIMARY SURVEW
- To obtain views of industry experts on technology improvements required and the possibility of achievements. The detailed list of organizations contacted is given as Annexure-I.1.
3.3 DATA ANALYSIS
- The information obtained through primary and secondary surveys is processed according to the requirements of the study.
3.4 LIMITATIONS
- The focus of the study is to identify technology options and new applications of molasses and to minimize the inefficiencies in the existing applications.
- In the absence of sufficient technological information, world market size of molasses based products is considered not to be uneven. However, sufficient data and information have been complied to draw conclusions.
- Because of uneven information, future availability and demand of smaller applications of molasses is not projected in the report.
- The study is conducted at a time when the decontrol of molasses was just announced. The decision of decontrol came after a long period of control over molasses pricing and distribution. As a result, several structural changes are taking place in the market and the market has not fully adjusted to the new environment. In such a scenario, it is difficult to predict accurately the impact of decontrol over the following:
- Future availability of molasses and alcohol.
- Quality of molasses recovered by sugar factories.
- Storage practices.
- Change in trading practices of molasses with the possibility of emergence of middlemen.
- Realizable prices of molasses and alcohol.
- The information on cost discussed in the report is only indicative.
5. MAJOR OBSERVATIONS/FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS OF THE REPORT
- Various issues related to a gainful utilization of molasses are discussed in the report. Major findings are discussed as under:
- Current Use Pattern of Molasses in India:
Major Application (Consuming about 85% - 95% of molasses recovered in India)
: Alcohol
Others : Cattle Feed, Other direct bio-conversion products such as Citric Acid and Lactic acid.
- Possibility of developing manufacture of other products based on molasses in India.
Domestic Demand
For identification of new products using molasses, their domestic demand is studied at first.
Amongst the possible applications of molasses, the only ones which are either imported or manufactured through other technological routes in India are
- Glycerine
- Lactic Acid
These products are also consumed in very small quantities because their imports as well as production in India is not much in India.
World Status
World Status of these products, in terms of the following parameters is studied:
- Current world market size of these products.
- Technology routes adopted and accessibility of these technologies.
Based on this study, it has been concluded that world market size of almost all these products is small and availability of technology also us a barrier.
Hence it may be concluded that development of new uses of molasses do not seem beneficial in India in the short term.
- Areas considered for technological evaluation for an efficient utilization of molasses
The areas which have ultimately been short listed for technological evaluation are:
- Storage of Molasses
- Alcohol production
Storage
Prior to decontrol, storage of molasses was considered a problem by the producer as well as the user industries. Therefore molasses was stored in kutcha pits or open brick lined pits. This resulted in a substantial loss of molasses due to seepage, overflow, etc. however after the decontrol, molasses is no more a low value by-product. It has now achieved a status of an important raw material. Hence both user and producer industries would automatically employ proper storage facilities for molasses.
For storage, details IS specifications have already been laid down which are discussed in the report.
Alcohol Production
For alcohol production, fermentation section is considered to be the most crucial area which affects the utilization of molasses. Distillation section is the same for all distilleries irrespective of the fermentation strategy.
For fermentation, two types of processes are adopted by distilleries
- Batch process
- Continuous process
- Based on continuous process, different technology options are available with different fermentation strategies, like;
- Biostil Process (with single fermenter system and yeast and weak wash recycle).
- Hi-ferm Process (without yeast recycle).
- Encillium Process (with a special flocculant yeast which does not require yeast recycle).
Amongst these, Encillium process is an indigenous breakthrough.
Advantages offered by these new continuous process technology options are in terms of increased yield of alcohol. No particular cost advantage is offered by any of these continuous process technology options over batch process, at least on a generic basis. Cost advantages may be derived by these options in specific cases, which have to be analysed on case to case basis.
Distillation Option
For distillation also, a new alternative is available to the industry called Pressvac. It is claimed that it may result in a saving of about Rs. 0.30/litre of alcohol by reducing the steam requirement. However, only one plant of Dhampur Sugar Mills Ltd. Is working on this system.
- Possibility of utilization of alternative raw materials (in place of molasses) for alcohol production.
The issue was considered because after decontrol, it appears that if molasses prices increase, the cost of ethanol production from alternative raw materials may become competitive. However, the study has concluded that this option does not seem feasible even in distant future, because of the following reasons:
- Low and geographically concentrated availability of these raw materials.
- High capital and operational costs.
The option was important for the study because if these raw materials were to be utilized on a large scale, it may change the utilization pattern of molasses. If that was so, what would be the next utilization alternative of molasses.
However, the study has analysed that even if these raw materials are utilized in ethanol production, they are not going to influence the usage pattern of molasses.
6. RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTION PLAN
- It is recommended in the study that molasses may be most gainfully utilized only it:
- A consistent quality of molasses is supplied to the user industry.
- Losses in storage, etc. is minimized.
- Ethanol production is made more efficient.
- For ensuring the supply of a consistent quality of molasses, Bureau of Indian Standards should revise the standards of molasses so that the efficiencies of downstream industries is not affected. Here it needs to be mentioned that the recommendations relate only to checking the large fluctuations in the quality of molasses and does not imply that the quality should be improved. It is accepted that with increasing efficiency of sugar industry, quality of molasses is bound to deteriorate.
- For storage, IS specification No. 5521-1980, already laid down, should be followed to save this valuable raw material.
- For increasing the yields of alcohol from molasses, sufficient measures should be adopted by distilleries. As per the response collected from industry, batch process may also work as efficiently as a continuous process. However, certain modifications like:
- Employing plate heat exchangers for ensuring better temperature controls.
- Water should be checked regularly.
- Sealing the open fermenters.
- Recovery of by-products like carbon di-oxide should be adopted.
- LONG TERM CONSIDERATIONS
- Exports should be the thrust area in the long terms. As has been studies in the report, India has only been a marginal player in the world market for both molasses and alcohol. Molasses and alcohol have never been in surplus in India and the quality produced is also substandard, as per international standards.
- By improving the yields of alcohol and minimizing the losses of molasses, exports could be emerge as a good possibility for molasses utilization.
- So far as development of other applications of molasses in the long run is concerned, it depends on the R&D capabilities of India. Technologies for the manufacture of these products is not available to any new entrant. Moreover, the world markets for these products are not expected to grow substantially. Hence these products do not offer much scope in future
