Sugar Industry in Uttar Pradesh has sought the help of National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur to further reduce its fresh water consumption and effluent discharge. An action plan in this regard was discussed today in a meeting held between institute officials and representatives of UP Sugar Mills Association.
Seeking guidance from National Sugar Institute, sugar Industry has already taken many initiatives which has resulted in considerable improvement in terms of specific fresh water consumption, waste water discharge and its quality as indicated by specific Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand loading (BOD) during last six crushing seasons.
Comparing the figures of 2017-18 with 2022-23 for 147 sugar factories situated in Ganga basin, it shows that the average fresh water requirement has reduced from 155 liter/ton to 77 liter/ton of sugarcane, effluent discharge from 190 liter/ton to 135 liter/ton of sugarcane and BOD loading from 0.0065 kg/ton to 0.0028 kg/ton of sugarcane, informed Prof. Narendra Mohan, Director, National Sugar Institute, Kanpur.
“However, there is further scope for improvement and institute has the vision to further reduce the fresh water consumption through adoption innovative technology for minimizing steam requirement and recycling waste water after cost effective treatment,” he further added.
Now to meet changing market requirements, sugar industry is required to adopt different processes for making sugar of desired qualities which need adoption of different process techniques. Because of this, various requirements including fresh water consumption also varies and in some cases also becomes higher. With the help of National Sugar Institute we would like to implement a charter for keeping our fresh water requirements lower and ensuring quality and quantity of effluent as per norms, said Shri Deepak Guptara, Secretary General, UP Sugar Mills Association.
