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SUGAR INDUSTRY: NATIONAL ECONOMY

TABLE I

No. of Working Sugar Factories 453

Cane Price Per Tonne US$ 20

Cane Price paid annually US$ 3700 Million

No. of cane farmers 50 Million

Sugar Production 20.0 Million Tonnes (Raw Value)

Annual Tax contribution to exchequer US $ 500 Million

Employment including ancillary activities 2 Million People

Fuel Ethanol of 5% blend (Value) US $ 200 Million per annum

Current export of Co-generated power

(Value)

US $ 100 Million per annum

The average cane crushing capacity in India, Brazil and Thailand is given below :

Country Avg. Capacity (TCD)

Thailand 10300

Brazil 9200

India 3500

The Government of India licensed new units with an initial capacity of 1250 TCD upto

1980s which was subsequently increased to 2500 TCD. Government de-licensed the

sugar sector in August 1998, thereby removing the restrictions on expansion of existing

capacity as well as on establishment of new units, with the only stipulation that a

minimum distance of 15 Kms would continue to be observed between an existing sugar

mill and a new mill. The number of sugar mills and the growth in capacity over decennial

period 1980-81 to 2000-01 and in the year 2001-02 to 2003-04 is given in Table No. II.

Table No. II: GROWTH IN AVERAGE CAPACITY OF SUGAR MILLS

Decennial period ending No. of Units Average Capacity Per Unit

(TCD)

1980-81 299 1650

1990-91 377 2030

2000-01 423 3000

2001-02 437 3200

2002-03 433 3350

2003-04 453 3500

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Cane Acreage & Production

Sugarcane occupies about 2.7% of the total cultivated area and it is one of the most

important cash crops in the country. The area under sugarcane has gradually increased

over the years mainly because of much larger diversion of land from other crops to

sugarcane by the farmers for economic reasons. The cane area has, however, declined in

the year 2003-04 mainly due to drought and pest attacks.

Table III

SUGARCANE AREA AND PRODUCTION

FROM 1980-81 TO 2000-01 & UPTO 2003-04

Year Area under cane (Million

hectares)

Cane Production (Million

tonnes)

1980-81 2.67 154

1990-91 3.69 241

2000-01 4.32 296

2001-02 4.41 297

2002-03 4.36 282

2003-04 3.99 236

Apart from fixation of statutory minimum price for sugarcane, the industry is also

required to share 50% of the extra realisation on free sale sugar over the levy price with

the cane farmers. Delay in making the cane price payment over 15 days also attracts 15%

penal interest. For the season 2003-04, the average sugarcane price paid being Rs.950/-

per tonne, is much higher than the cane prices, paid in the major sugar producing and

exporting countries, where it is linked to sugar sales realisation and is also disbursed in 2

to 3 installments

Tempted by such securitisation of price, farmers preferred to increase area under cane

causing spurt in cane acreage and sugarcane production significantly. From a level of 154

million tonnes in 1980-81, the cane production increased to 241 million tonnes in 1990-

91 and further to 296 million tonnes in 2000-01. Since then it has been hovering around

Unlike sugarcane, where the farmers are assured of a minimum price by way of a

statutory order issued by the Government, in respect of all other agricultural crops

including food grains, the Government of India only announces the minimum support

prices (MSP). On the other hand, with statutory protection, sugarcane farmers receive the

price as statutorily notified from the sugar mills even when it resulted in sizable loss to

the sugar undertakings.

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300 million tonnes until last year. In the season 2003-04, however, sugarcane production

declined to 236 million tones.

Indian Sugar Mills Association

'C' Block, 2nd Floor, Ansal Plaza,

A.K. Road, Andrews Ganj,

New Delhi- 110049 INDIA

Phones: +91-11-2626 2294-97

FAX: +91-11-2626 3231

E-mails: isma@spectranet.com

isma@vsnl.com

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Sugar The sugar industry is one of the largest sectors of the Indian economy and India is now the largest producer and consumer of sugar in the world. Sugar is exported from India in recent years. Maharashtra contributes over one-third of country’s sugar output (36 per cent) followed by Uttar Pradesh with 25 per cent. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are the other two important sugar-producing states in the country. There has been record production of sugar during sugar year1999-2000 (October – September) estimated at 18.2 million tonnes.

Year Area

Under

Cane

Cane

Prod.

Million

tonnes

Cane Utilization

Million tonnes

Sugar Production

Lakh tonnes

Million

hectares For

Sugar

For

Gur &

Khandsari.

For

Seed &

Chew

Target Revised

Prod.

2002-

03

4.36 309.9 181 92.0 37 182 192

In terms of sugarcane production, India and Brazil are almost equally placed. In

India, about 60% of cane is utilized for the production of sugar, about 30% for alternate

sweeteners, namely gur and khandsari, and the balance 10% for seeds.

In Brazil, out of the total cane available for crushing, 45% goes for sugar

production and 55% for the production of ethanol directly from sugarcane juice. This

gives the sugar industry in Brazil an additional flexibility to adjust its sugar production

keeping in view the sugar price in the international market as nearly 40% of the sugar

output is exported.

The annual projected growth rate in the area under sugarcane at 1.5% per annum

has doubled during the last five years. This is because it is considered to be an assured

cash crop with good returns to the farmers vis-a-vis other competing crops.

About 35 million farmers constituting about 7% of the rural population are

engaged in growing sugar cane. The industry absorbs a sizable portion of the cane crop

and provides the farmer with the resources to meet his commitments. Each sugar factory

deals with thousands of cane farmers. Sugar cane being a highly perishable crop, cannot

be transported over long distances. On storing cut cane for more than two days inversion

of sucrose to mono-saccharides takes place. Inversion is minimized by shading cuttings

and making quick delivery of the cane, at the mill.

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Sucrose: C12H22O11

Disaccharide of glucose and fructose

Quantitative requirements: Basis: 1 ton of raw sugar (97% sucrose); yield from cane-95%

on sucrose basis, 9.5-15% on basis.

Sugar cane: 6 to 10.5 tons of 16 to 10% sucrose content

Water: 3 to 4 tons

Lime: 12 to 17 kg

SO2: 6 to 10 kg

Process description: Canes are shredded in crushers and squeezed through a series of

pressure mills containing grooved walls. Weak juice and make up water are added as

extracting fluids before squeezing to optimize juice yield at 95 to 97%

The juice is treated with Calcium phosphate, followed by lime to precipitate the

colloids. SO2 is next bubbled through until the pH is 7.0 to7.1. This procedure provides

maximum flocculation of impurities. The SO2 also acts as a bleaching agent. Phosphoric

acid or CO2 can be substituted as the acidifying agent.

Closed steam in a coil is used to heat and further flocculate the impurities in a

continuous settler. The clarified liquor overflows to the evaporator. The underflow mud is

processed on a continuous rotary press to recover sugar solution that is either passed

forward to the evaporator or backward to the thickener again if it is not clear. The filter

cake is used for fertilizer.

The clarified juice is concentrated to 80-85 % water to 40% in a 3 or 4 effect

evaporator with crystallization completed in a vacuum pan unit The mixture of syrup and

crystal are separated via a high speed basket centrifugal. The syrup is re-concentrated and

cooled successively to obtain one or more crops of crystals.The final mother liquor is

known as black strap molasses that is sent to distilleries for conversion to ethyl alcohol.

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Improving sugarcane juice quality -- Benefits of the ultrafiltration technique

M. Somasekhar

A SUGAR mill in the private sector and a national research institute have come together

and successfully implemented a technique that helps in producing chemical-free, nil

sulphur, refined quality sugar.

The key ingredients in this technique, called ultrafiltration, are indigenous polymeric

membrane modules. These membranes can withstand high temperatures and are only the

second of their kind used in the sugar industry worldwide.

According to the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council

(TIFAC), which supported the collaborative project, the only other similar attempt in the

global sugar industry was by Koch Membrane Systems, US.

The sugarcane juice obtained from plantation crop is purified by these membrane

modules, which act as filters. The main advantages of this technique are improved

recovery of sugar, superior product quality and the fact that no chemicals are used.

The experiments establishing this ultrapurification technique using indigenous polymeric

filters were conducted at the Simbhaoli Sugar Mills Limited (SSML), in Ghaziabad

district of Uttar Pradesh. The Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), New Delhi, did the

experimental work.

The process has been demonstrated on a 10 tonnes/hr industrial-scale pilot plant. The

membranes specifically designed for the pilot-scale operations by Permionics, a

Vadodara-based company, withstood continuous operations at 97 degrees C.

The technique should has great potential to help sugar manufacturers, especially of

plantation white sugar, who have been facing the challenge of ensuring that the juice

obtained through clarification is of consistently high clarity and low colour.

This poses a stiff challenge because of the wide variations in cane varieties, soil and

growing conditions, climate and, above all, fluctuations in the manufacturing process

itself, leading to variations in the juice characteristics, according to TERI.

To overcome this problem, membrane-based filtration methods, such as microfiltration

and ultrafiltration, are being tried out. TERI, with funding from the TIFAC under the

`Sugar Technology Mission' initiative, took up the demonstration project at Simbhaoli

Sugar Mills Ltd, which was keen on evaluating ultrafiltration for the purification of

sugarcane juice in the manufacture of plantation white sugar.

According to the project implemented by TERI and SSML, ultrafiltration trials for three

successive crushing seasons beginning November 1997 were carried out at the Ghaziabad

mill. The juice obtained had an additional purity of 0.74 units compared to the output

using the conventional liming-sulphitation process.

The other advantages claimed by the team consisting of Drs M. Balakrishnan and A. M.

Ghosh of TERI, and Messrs S. N. Misra, N. C. Sharma and P. Ranga Rao of SSML, were

a ten-fold improvement in juice clarity and a near 60 per cent reduction in colour. The

process itself leads to a drastic cut in the inorganics (iron, silica, manganese and zinc)

content in the juice.

In short, the TERI-SSML-TIFAC initiative promises to provide an opportunity for the

Indian sugar industry to develop a process for the direct production of chemical-free

refined quality sugar without going in for sugar refining techniques.

They suggest long-term trials and a commitment from the sugar industry to establish the

reliability of this technique in the existing environment. A majority of the sugar mills in

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the country today use the double-sulphitation technique to produce plantation white

sugar, which needs upgradation to produce international grade sugar, according to

TIFAC.

Towards this end TIFAC, through its sugar technology mission, helped another private

sugar factory in Barabanki village on the outskirts of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. DSM

Sugar was extended a soft loan (6 per cent per annum) of Rs 474 lakh from the Sugar

Development Fund (SDF).

Consequently, in the upgradation project minor changes to the existing machinery were

made and a combination of phospho-floatation process for clarification, filtration and

decolourisation deployed to produce sugar with nil sulphur and low ash content.

The double sulphitation process used by the sugar mill was replaced to produce raw and

refined sugar of export quality and to meet the demands of the domestic pharmaceutical

and beverage industries.

In the quest for providing technology inputs to produce sugar of international standard,

TIFAC has been spearheading a Sugar Technology Mission (STM) since 1993. The five

main thrusts of the mission are:

Reducing sugar losses

Energy conservation

Superior product quality

Minimisation of pollution

Value-addition to by-products.

The STM was started in close collaboration with the Department of Food and Public

Distribution. It is one of the first instances when a socio-economic ministry decided to

work closely with the science ministry for improvement in technical efficiency of a large

industry.

Having already achieved several incremental technological developments, which are

being implemented by the Indian sugar mills, the STM will, during the Tenth Plan period,

focus on replication of select technologies already evaluated on a plant scale. It would

prepare schemes for technology upgradation of 15-20 sugar factories for achieving

multiplier effect.

In the past few years it has taken up 27 sugar factories for technological upgradation and

helped prepare detailed schemes for the purpose. It has evaluated a number of modern

technologies and extended financial, techno-managerial support to 19 new technologies

for their evaluation.