Sugar Mills And Environmental Clearance

 

> The 2006 notification of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) made it mandatory to obtain an Environmental Clearance (EC) for all new developments, their extension, modernization and changes in the product mix.

> This means that EC had to be acquired by project management before starting construction work or land planning, with the exception of securing the land.

 

> There are three types of EIA notification: A, B1 and B2.

> The Group A projects require EC from MoEF&CC.

> Category B1 projects get the EC from the state/ union territory Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).

> Projects under category B2 also get EC from the SEIAA. But, B2 category projects do not require an EIA report and are exempted from holding public consultation.

> The new notification enables all sugar production and distillery expansion projects to be listed as B2 under the 2006 EIA notification.

> This provision was made for the production, under the Ethanol Blended with Petrol (EBP) programme, of ethanol for blending with petrol.

• The government initiated the EBP programme in 2003 to facilitate the use of renewable and environmentally sustainable fuels.

• The purpose of this action was also to minimise import reliance on energy requirements and to improve the agricultural sector (supply of straw, extra income for farmers).

• Oil marketing companies (OMCs) have been needed to sell ethanol-blended petrol with an ethanol content of up to 10%.

• The government allowed the procurement, including petrochemical routes, of ethanol derived from non-food feed stocks, such as cellulosic and ligno-cellulosic materials.

• Ligno-cellulosic materials: It describes the main constituents in most plants, namely cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Lignocellulose is a complex matrix, comprising many different polysaccharides, phenolic polymers and proteins. Cellulose, the major component of cell walls of land plants, is a glucan polysaccharide containing large reservoirs of energy that provide real potential for conversion into biofuels. It is the non-starch based fibrous part of plant material

 

• The production of sugar cane and sugar in the sugar season is generally very high, resulting in a dampening of the price of sugar.

• As a result, the dues of sugarcane farmers have risen because of the sugar industry's lower willingness to compensate farmers. The realisation of ethanol is also one of the revenue components of sugar mills / distilleries, and the government agreed to examine the price of ethanol extracted from heavy C molasses.

 

> “A” molasses is an intermediate product obtained upon centrifuging the A masecuite (a semi-solid mixture obtained from the juice of sugar cane after several round) in a raw sugar factory. Approximately 77% of the total, available, raw sugar in clarified/ concentrated sugarcane juice is extracted during this first centrifugation process.

> “B” molasses is also known as “second” molasses. It, too, is an intermediate product, obtained from boiling together “seed-sugar” and A molasses to obtain a B masecuite, which is then centrifuged to extract an additional 12% of raw sugar. At this point, approximately 89% of the total recoverable raw sugar in the processed cane has been extracted.

> The last molasses is known as “C”, molasses. It is the end product obtained upon combining “virgin” sugar crystals obtained from syrup crystallization and B molasses to form a C masecuite, which after boiling and centrifuging produces C sugar and C molasses. Even though C molasses is considered the end or final product in a raw sugar factory, it still contains considerable amounts of sucrose (approximately 32 to 42%) which to date has not been recovered by an economically viable method

> Environmental clearance requirements relaxed for sugar mills

> The latest notice clarifies that there has been an exemption to increase ethanol production. In 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs raised the price of ethanol to be delivered under the EBP to OMCs to help reduce the backlog of sugarcane farmers.

> Indian sugar mills cumulatively owe Rs 22,000 crore to cane farmers in 2017-18.

> The premise is that the monitoring profits achieved by the mills from the selling of ethanol will be used to clear farmers' dues.

> The mixing of ethanol with petrol is also practised in other countries. This is as big as 85 per cent in Thailand.

> If the 10 percent (EBP) goal had been achieved, the government would have saved Rs 4,000 crore spent by the country on importing petrol. Moreover, according to the latest National Biofuels Strategy 2018, it would have lowered 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions.

 

> Biofuels are strategically relevant in India as it augurs well with the government's ongoing initiatives such as Make in India, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Skill Creation and provides a great opportunity to integrate with the ambitious goals of doubling farmers ' income, reducing imports, generating jobs, creating waste.

> The biofuels programme in India has been largely affected by the prolonged and quantum non-availability of domestic feedstock to be addressed for the production of biofuels.

 

 

> The relaxing of the standards (norms) for the sugar industry to increase the production of ethanol would lead to higher levels of emissions.

 

> Distilleries are among the most water-intensive industries, which would ultimately bring more stress on the local area's water supply.

 

> Although less polluting, ethanol blended fuel has a much shorter shelf life than standard fuel. Agricultural residues / wastes otherwise burned by farmers and mill owners can be converted to ethanol by implementing EBP technologies and can get a price for such waste if a demand is created for the same. In price stability, conversion of surplus grains and agricultural biomass may also help. One 100 klpd (Kilo Litres per Day) 2G bio refinery can contribute 1200 jobs in Plant Operations, Village Level Entrepreneurs and Supply Chain Management.