Origen del azucar

Chapter 13
Sugar
13.1 Introduction India has been known as the original home of sugar and sugarcane. Indian mythology supports the above fact as it contains legends showing the origin of sugarcane. India is the second largest producer of sugarcane next to Brazil. Apart from sugar, the sugar industry produces certain by-products, which can be used for production of other industrial products. Themost important by-product is molasses, which is utilized for production of chemicals and alcohol. In addition, the other important by product is bagasse. It is mainly utilised as a captive fuel in the boilers but it is also used as a raw material in the paper industry. 13.1.2 Number of Sugar Factories

There were 608 installed sugar factories in the country as on 31.12.2007. The sector-wisebreakup is as follows: Table 13.1 Sector Cooperative Private Public TOTAL Number of factories 317 229 62 608 *

* This Includes closed sugar factories also Source: Department of Food & Public Distribution

13.1.3

Production of Sugar

During the sugar season 2007-2008, production of sugar is estimated at about 270 lakh tonnes as against the production of 280 lakh tonnes during the previousseason 2006-2007. Table 13.2: Production of Sugar
(Lakh Tonnes)

1997- 1998- 1999- 2000- 2001- 2002- 2003- 2004- 2005- 2006-2007 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 (Provisional) 128.44 154.52 181.93 185.10 184.98 201.32 139.58 130.00 193.21 280.00
Source: Department of Food & Public Distribution

13.2

Energy Profile

The energy requirements in a sugar mill are in the form of steam for processheating/turbo drives and electricity for running various drives. The sugar industry has the unique advantage of utilizing a captive fuel-bagasse, to meet its energy requirements. However, depending upon various factors like fibre content in the cane, quantity of juice, type of clarification process and evaporation effects, type of prime movers (steam driven or electric driven) etc., some sugar millsproduce a
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small quantity of surplus bagasse while others are deficient by a small quantity. These mills, therefore, have to depend in a very limited way on external fuels like fuel oil, LSH, coal etc to supplement their energy requirements. Likewise, some sugar mills during the season can produce a little surplus power while others would be deficient in power by a small margin andhence the dependence on grid power is minimal. Energy consumption in sugar plants depends on various factors such as its capacity, steam generation parameters, vintage, equipment used etc. Analysis of the energy consumption pattern in the sugar mills reveals that there exists significant scope for improving the energy efficiency in the Indian Sugar Industry. The major reason for the high energyconsumption in the industry is the presence of large number of old, small capacity sugar mills which have not invested much over the years in modernizing or upgrading various process equipment. Apart from improving the end use efficiency in the plants, the other most promising energy conservation measure for the industry is to set up high-pressure cogeneration systems. This not only has the potentialof opening up additional revenue streams for the sugar plants by way of sale of electricity, it can effectively contribute in reducing the ever widening gap between demand and supply of electricity in various power deficit regions in the country. 13.2.1 Energy consumption in Sugar Industry Table 13.3
Specific Electrical Energy consumption 30 units/tonne of cane with electric motors & DC Drives 24units / tonne of cane with diffusers Specific Thermal Energy steam consumption 38% on cane
Source: CII-IREDA

profitability to the plant as well as significant reduction in GHG emission. These plants, however, are very few in number. The Indian sugar industry offers good potential for energy saving. The estimated energy saving potential in the Indian sugar industry is about 20%. This offers...