National sugar institute establishes “nano grain based ethanol unit” in campus

Inauguration of newly constructed “Nano Grain based Ethanol Unit” at National Sugar Institute, Kanpur was made today by Dr. N. B. Singh, Vice Chancellor, Harcourt Butler Technological University, Kanpur. This unit is integrated with existing molasses based Ethanol Unit and thus now the system would be “Multi Feed Stock Based Ethanol Unit” capable of working on different qualities of molasses and various grains viz. rice, maize, millets and sorghum etc. Congratulating the National Sugar Institute, Dr. N.B. Singh, Vice Chancellor, Harcourt Butler Technological University, Kanpur lauded the efforts of creating such facilities which shall be helpful in effective teaching and training and the students shall develop confidence once they work with their own hands and operate various units used in ethanol production.

Prof. Narendra Mohan, Director, National Sugar Institute, Kanpur while elaborating the importance of such unit said that with the growing demand of ethanol for ethanol blending in petrol which is estimated to be about 360 crore litres per annum at present @10% blending, the conventional route of using molasses from sugar factories for ethanol production is not adequate and use of alternate feed stocks through which the ethanol can be produced at reasonable rates is inevitable. Thus, the deteriorated grains, rice and corn in particular, which are not fit for human consumption may be used for ethanol production without inviting a debate on “Food vs Fuel”. Side by side, the surplus grains may also be utilized for the purpose.

This will do two goods, one the ethanol availability will increase and distilleries will work for more no. of days resulting in better capacity utilization and secondly the farmers will also be benefitted as they would get a new market for selling the produce at better prices. We have proposed this concept of setting of “Multi Feed Stock Based Ethanol Units or Smart Ethanol Units” to the Government of India.

Thus, to showcase installation of such ethanol units to the industry and also to provide competent manpower to the industry, this unit has been commissioned with the help of M/s ISGEC Heavy Engineering Ltd. at an expenditure of about Rs. 75.00 Lakhs. The unit based on dry milling technology has equipment based on latest technology at Liquefaction, Fermentation, Distillation and De-hydration stages. National Sugar Institute is the only sugar institute in the world to have such “Multi Feed Stock Based or Smart Ethanol Unit” for
teaching and training purposes. Once the working normalizes, we shall also conduct short duration training programmes for industry personnel added Prof. Mohan.

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