UP permits ethanol production from sugarcane juice

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 23, 2021

Amid the mounting sugarcane arrears in the current crushing season, the Uttar Pradesh government has allowed distilleries to produce ethanol directly from cane juice and syrup.

This is aimed at reducing excess sugar inventories, increasing liquidity with the sugar mills for speedier payment to farmers and increasing ethanol availability for the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme.

According to the state government, surplus sugar production has depressed sugar prices, thereby impacting mills’ capacity to pay farmers. Currently, the UP mills have arrears of about Rs 12,000 crore in the current 2020-21 crushing season.

The fresh UP cabinet decision will empower mills, having captive distilleries, to choose between production of sugar or ethanol from cane juice, depending upon the viability of market price of sugar, further improving their income and thereby better cane payment to farmers.

The ex-distillery price of ethanol derived from cane juice is Rs 62.85 per litre while that from C- heavy molasses is Rs 45.69 per litre, for the current ethanol supply year beginning December 2020. “Higher remunerative prices for ethanol produced from cane juice will help in reduction of cane arrears,” a senior sugar department official noted.

Sugarcane juice denotes primary juice, secondary juice, mixed juice and clear juice as obtained by ‘sulphitation’ or defecation process. Sugarcane syrup means concentrated juice having total dissolved solid content not less than 50 brix.

Ethanol produced from cane juice shall be used only for EBP programme. As no sugar or molasses is produced in the process, the income from ethanol derived from cane juice and syrup shall be tagged for payment of cane dues, he informed.

Earlier, the state government had permitted ethanol production from B- heavy molasses. Ever since, more than 40 state distilleries have been producing ethanol form B-heavy molasses, resulting in a significant increase in ethanol production in UP, which tops the tally in the country.