Kanpur: ‘World Water Day’ was observed at National Sugar Institute here on Tuesday. The event whose theme was ‘Groundwater—Making the invisible, visible’, was held in the hybrid mode. It was attended by a large number of delegates from the sugar and ethanol industry from various sugar producing states of the country.
Director of the institute Narendra Mohan in his presidential address stressed upon the need for minimizing fresh water usage for processing in sugar factories as sugarcane itself contains about 70% water which can be recovered and re-utilized for meeting process needs instead of exhausting natural resources. During the last five years, fresh water consumption in the sugar factories situated in the Ganga basin has come down from 140-180 litres per tonne of cane processed to 80-100 litres per tonne of cane. Keeping in view sugarcane crushing to the extent of 300 million metric tonnes per annum in the country, adoption of such a system can provide significant savings, Prof Mohan said. Similarly, fresh water consumption in distilleries has been reduced from 12-14 litres of alcohol to 6-7 litres of alcohol and there is scope for further reduction, he added. Prof. D Swain in his address talked about various technologies–air cooled condensers and condensate polishing units to reduce water requirements further. “Now, we are having complexes comprising sugar, power generation and ethanol units and thus it is necessary to draw a strategy for overall water requirements. The effluent from sugar units after due treatment can be utilized in molasses-based distilleries and power generation units, thus minimizing their requirements”, Prof Swain explained.
Director of the institute Narendra Mohan in his presidential address stressed upon the need for minimizing fresh water usage for processing in sugar factories as sugarcane itself contains about 70% water which can be recovered and re-utilized for meeting process needs instead of exhausting natural resources. During the last five years, fresh water consumption in the sugar factories situated in the Ganga basin has come down from 140-180 litres per tonne of cane processed to 80-100 litres per tonne of cane. Keeping in view sugarcane crushing to the extent of 300 million metric tonnes per annum in the country, adoption of such a system can provide significant savings, Prof Mohan said. Similarly, fresh water consumption in distilleries has been reduced from 12-14 litres of alcohol to 6-7 litres of alcohol and there is scope for further reduction, he added. Prof. D Swain in his address talked about various technologies–air cooled condensers and condensate polishing units to reduce water requirements further. “Now, we are having complexes comprising sugar, power generation and ethanol units and thus it is necessary to draw a strategy for overall water requirements. The effluent from sugar units after due treatment can be utilized in molasses-based distilleries and power generation units, thus minimizing their requirements”, Prof Swain explained.
The above news was originally posted on timesofindia.indiatimes.com
