Ten cooperative sugar mills converting their ethanol distilleries from molasses to multi-feedstock

About a dozen cooperative sugar mills operating molasses-based distilleries have applied to convert their ethanol plants to be run on more widely available grains.

Molasses is produced during the process of making sugar from sugarcane. But the sugarcane crushing period is limited to 4-5 months in a year, which means sugar mills dependent on molasses can only operate for a limited period.

Switching to grains like maize and damaged food grains would ensure year-round ethanol production and improved efficiency for cooperative sugar mills, whose output has been reduced to about a third of India’s overall sugar production.

Out of India’s 269 cooperative sugar mills, 93 operate molasses-based distilleries. “Out of these 93 distilleries… 10 of them applied for conversion of existing sugarcane-based (molasses) feedstock ethanol plants to multi-feedstock-based plants,” said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director, National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd.

Of these 10, eight are in Maharashtra, which is among India’s largest sugarcane growing states, and one each in Gujarat and Karnataka.

The federation is working on modalities so more cooperative sugar mills convert their distilleries from molasses to multi-feedstock.

“We have applied to convert our existing molasses distillery into multi-feedstock to increase our efficiency,” said R.B. Khandagave, managing director, Karnataka-based Chidanand Basaprabhu Kore Sahakari Sakkare Karkhane. “Currently, our distillery is operational for around 200 days, but once the multi-feedstock is in place it would be operational throughout the year.”

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