Many Indian companies are looking at ramping up their ethanol manufacturing mainly due to the government's focus on ethanol.
Now Dalmia Bharat Sugar & Industries Limited has decided to increase its ethanol manufacturing capacity to 15 crore litres per annum from January 2022. The company's present production capacity is 8 crore litres.
This move is in line with the government’s decision to raise ethanol blending in auto fuels to 20 per cent by 2025 from around 8 per cent currently, stated the company.
The company stated with this expansion, it will divert around 1,50,000 tonne of sugar for ethanol production compared to 60,000 tonne now.
Dalmia Bharat Sugar has three sugar factories located in Uttar Pradesh (Ramgarh, Jawaharpur and Nigohi) and two in Maharashtra (Kolhapur and Sangli). The expansion will happen at the company’s Jawaharpur, Nigohi and Kolhapur plants. The company added that one new distillery will be set up at Ramgarh.
The company firmly believes that the recent announcement by the central government to advance an ethanol blending programme of 20 per cent to 2025 is a step in the right direction as it will be beneficial for both: the country and the sugar manufacturers. "The sugar industry will get benefit from this move as the industry was also looking to find ways to balance sugar production with consumption as the opportunity to export will come down. The advancement of the ethanol blending programme means that in the next four to five years, the industry will be able to balance its output with consumption, which will translate into reasonable prices for the sweetener and keep inventory under control," stated the company.
In the ongoing sugar season, Dalmia Bharat Sugar has exported 66KMT of sugar so far (till 31st May). The sugar exports were at 192 KMT in the previous season.
As of now, the company has aggregate sugarcane crushing capacity of 34000 TCD, distillery and co-generation operation of 240 KLPD and 119 MW respectively.
