Sugar mills in the country are making sustainability a central focus as they plan for the future. Emphasising the importance of the environment on World Environment Day, Balrampur Chini Mills Limited (BCML) gave an insight into the numerous measures it has taken to advocate sustainability through its eco-friendly product basket.
In a recent announcement, BCML spoke about how the company has diversified its offerings over the years. From being a leading sugar manufacturer of sugar to venturing into business lines like that of cogeneration and distillery. It has recently announced its upcoming PLA-manufacturing venture through which it aims to responsibly intervene in the market of Single-Use-Plastics and drive a sustainable switch.
The largest integrated sugar mill complexes in the country said that the journey in the line of sustainability is defined by 6 paramount concepts – Integrated, Zero Liquid Discharge, Financial Prudence, Biofuel, Cane Competence and Digitalisation.
It has expanded its distillery capacity and was amongst the first companies to respond to the National Biofuel Policy of 2018 through notable investments directed towards the distillery business. From 360 KLPD in 2017-18 to a whopping capacity of 1050 KLPD, BCML has rapidly ramped up its distillery capacity.
The company not only actively invests to enhance the quality and productivity of the primary raw material i.e. sugarcane but also collaborates with advanced cane research institutes to introduce superior cane alternatives. Being one of the first sugar companies to implement digitalisation, which helped it centralise data around common platforms and thereby led to undertaking well-informed decisions.
The company was the first one in the country to develop the distilleries to zero liquid discharge, and installation of incineration boilers in sugar manufacturing plants, before the same was mandated.
The renewable by-products manufactured by BCML, significantly contribute to replacing the use of finite fossil fuels with biodegradable alternatives. The Company’s latest investment in Poly Lactic Acid manufacturing stands testimony to its relentless efforts in the line of advocating sustainable switches.
The company aims to tap into the market of bioplastic production, with an estimated investment of INR 2,000 crore, BCML. Derived from a crop as widely grown in the country, as sugarcane, PLA bioplastic is not only an environment-friendly alternative but also inhibits properties which enable seamless replacement of fossil-fuel based plastics, thereby reducing the country’s energy dependence.
To bolster its contribution to India’s biofuel production, BCML took a decisive step by dedicating its Maizapur unit exclusively to ethanol production.
