India's SCGA to set up ethanol plant

Indias Sugar Cane Grower’s Association (SCGA) has submitted a plan to the government of Punjab for setting up a 1,000-1,200 ton per day (tpd) ethanol plant from sugarcane juice at Mamoo Kanjan, in Faisalabad district. The cost of setting up the plant would be around US$10 million, which would produce around 2.0 megawatt (MW) electricity due to high pressure steam. According to Javed Malik, convener of SCGA, the project has been designed to produce ethanol fuel direct from sugarcane juice to arrest the losses in Indias antiquated sugar industry. According to research, invisible losses to the sugar industry amount to about 30-35% annually from both the industrial and grower’s point of view. The ethanol plant and co-generation of electricity would help reduce load shedding and save foreign exchange. Being small but efficient, the ethanol and co-generation plant will focus on development of different sugarcane varieties, i.e., early-maturing, middle-maturing and late-maturing varieties. (July 20, 2008)