By SUDEEP KUMAR SINGH

SUGAR ENGINEERING 2ND YR

NSI KANPUR
• Sugar Factory play a key role in the socio-
economic development of a country
• The main products of Sugar industry are white
sugar, refined sugar and molasses and bagasse
as by product
• But this industry has a part to it which we should
focus upon is the effluent generated during
milling and distillery operation
• The untreated or ineffectively treated effluent
generated is released in the drainage system
which pollute the nearby rivers affecting its
aquatic life and environment
 Sugar industry plays a key role in rural economy
of a country by sugarcane farming and
providing job to rural youth
 However sugar mills has a great environment
impact on the surrounding environment
 The change of water chemistry is the main
associated environment impact of discharging
sugar mills effluent on an open water body
 This waste water from sugar mills having high
biological oxygen demand and chemical
 oxygen demand deplete available oxygen supply
endangering fishes and other aquatic life
 Suspended solids reduce light penetration
capability as a result plant production in water
bodies is diminished through increasing turbidity
that also clogs fish gills
 The freshwater water requirement of sugar mills is
also very high and all this water is generally ground
water which is sometime a cause of concern where
potable water is not easily available
 Environment impacts

• Field level impact

• Farm level impact
• Landscape level impact
 Main causes of the impact

• Habitat clearance
• Overuse of water
• Intensive use of chemicals
• Discharge of mill effluents
 Better management practices to reduce the impact

• Efficient irrigation system

• Rational use of chemicals
• Maintenance of soil health and prevention of soil
erosion
• Reducing pollution from Sugar Mills
• Use of by product and alcohol production
1. Field level impact
An estimated 5 to 6 million hectares of
cropland is lost due to severe soil erosion
,cultivation of sugarcane contribute to soil
degradation and impacting on soil quantity
and soil quality
Soil erosion
Soil erosion has a significant issue under
sugarcane cultivation in tropical areas
since in these areas rate of soil formation
is low
 The physical loss of soil by erosion is
influenced by number of factors such as
rainfall ,wind , irrigation ,temperature
,cultivation disturbance and topography
 Water generated soil erosion- where
irrigation application is inefficient or rainfall
is high, water withdrawal is generally
coupled with loss of valuable soil from farm
this can lead to 15 to over 500t/ha/yr soil
loss in a year in cane farm
 Wind generated soil erosion-beet fields in
 particular are vulnerable to wind erosion as
well as water erosion since they are often left
bare over winter
 Soil loss at harvest –soil loss during
harvesting especially beet is a cause of
concern , 10 to 30 percent of total beet
harvest weight is soil 3 to 5 percent in case of
cane
 Soil acidification- increased soil acidity
affects plant health and crop yield mainly
common in cane farms because of the
overuse of nitrogenous fertilizers such as
Urea and Ammonium sulphate
2. Farm level impact
 The microorganism associated with the a
crop plays a significant role in ecosystem
function
 Vertebrates present in cane fields are often
regarded as pest species and yet may be
beneficial as natural enemies of weed and
pest
3. Landscape level impact
 Sugarcane or Beet cultivation plays an vital
role in maintaining the wetlands impact .
 Plantation of sugarcane helps in reducing
the properties of soil by maintaining less
flow of soil nutrients with freshwater flow
1. Habitat clearance
2. Overuse of water
3. Intensive use of chemicals
4. Discharge of mill effluents
 Habitat destruction for cane cultivation-
production of sugarcane has probably caused
a greater loss of biodiversity on the planet
than any other single crop
 Fifteen countries around the world devote
between 10 to 50 percent of their land area
to cane cultivation
 Land clearance not only results in direct loss
of species and habitats but deep impact on
hydrology and increased soil erosion
 As taking the case of Punjab where there are
plans to increase area under cane from
80,000 to 136,000 ha
 Half of the world wetlands have been lost to
drainage and conversion to agriculture 70 to
90 percent in case of Europe and USA
 Agriculture water use- agriculture is by far
the biggest user of water worldwide 70
percent of water withdrawals are for
irrigation, rising to more than 90 percent in
some areas
 Sugarcane water use-although sugarcane is
an efficient converter of biomass from water
it still needs about 1500 to 2000mm/ha/yr
and ranks among group of crop noted for
their excess water consumption
 Sugarbeet water use- around one fifth of
world beet cultivated area is irrigated but
there are some question over whether
irrigation is actually necessary in some areas
where beet is grown as
 Beet is not particularly sensitive to water
availability
 The crop is principally grown in temperate
areas where sunlight rather than water is the
limiting factor
 Water application in Amravathy river basin
was 28 percent higher than the
recommended levels
 In Maharashtra sugarcane covers just three
percent of land yet corners around 60 percent of
state irrigation supply the ground water table in
places has dropped from 15 m to 65 m in the
past 20 years
 Pest control-Intensive agriculture food
production in general uses high level of
pesticides with herbicides representing 50
percent used in many countries
 Long term experiments on the use of
pesticides on sugar beet in Russia resulted in
accumulation of toxic substances in roots and
aerial parts of the crop plants resulted in
retardation of growth and decrease in sugar
content
 Research in Austria demonstrated that with
conventinal use of fertilizer application only
50 percent of soil nitrogen was taken up by
crop and 20 percent remained in the soil and
30 percent was lost
 Increased application of N fertilisers in
Australia has led to acidification and
contamination of ground and surface water
and enhanced green house gas emission
 The significant impact from cane and beet
processing is related to polluted effluent
 In some countries with weak environment
laws when sugar mills are annually cleaned a
large amount of matter is released which is
discharged directly into streams
 Cane mill effluent tends to be relatively rich
in organic matter and the decomposition of
this matter reduces oxygen levels in water
affecting natural biochemical process species
in fresh water
 Potential pollutants in these effluent include
heavy metal ,oil, grease and cleaning agents
 The production of alcohol from cane and beet
can also result in significant pollution as the
by-product known as vinasse is discharged in
rivers, every litre of alcohol produced from
sugarcane produces 13 litres of vinasse
 Steam and ash production from factories
contribute a lot to air pollution
 Efficient irrigation system
 Rational chemical use
 Maintenance of soil health and prevention of
soil erosion
 Reducing pollution from sugar mills by
effective effluent treatment plant
 Use of by product and alcohol production
 One of the main benefits of implementing
better irrigation is increased water use
efficiency
 In Pune ,water saving in cane fields of 36
percent have been achieved by flooding
alternate rather than all furrow
 In Swaziland water application efficiencies for
sugarcane have been estimated to 72 to 89
percent under drip and centre pivot , 49 to 88
percent under dragline ,48 to 75 percent
under furrow irrigation
 Increase in water use efficiency of 43-66 percent
have been achieved in Tamil Nadu by using
alternate furrow irrigation in cane fields with
more benefit in combination with trash mulching
 Decreased fertiliser and pesticides requirement
with drip irrigation- with drip fertigation
nutrients are delivered only to the root base or
root zone
 Yields with drip irrigation have been increased by
20 percent in Thailand and India
 In many areas of world nitrogenous fertilizers
are routinely used applied at rates of 50 –
200kg/ha/yr which is too much thus led to
soil acidification
 The use of bio-fertilizer(combination of
nitrogen fixing microorganism and organic
amendments ) in place of chemical fertilizer
could reduce inorganic fertilizer requirement
by 20- 25 percent and reduce the risk of
nitrate leaching
 Pressmud which is rich in phosphorus can help
overcome phosphorus deficiency in cane crop
especially in India and Pakistan
 Over 70 percent cane growers in Queensland
were given one day course in the use of farm
chemicals resulting in marked increase in
proficient use and reduced application rates and
frequencies
 A wide range of methods have been proposed
for reduction of soil erosion and
improvement in soil quality in sugarcane and
beet cultivation such as trash mulching,
terracing and strip planting of cane on slopes
and modified tillage
 Trash blanketing mulching – in this process
cane leaves are cut from the plant and left on
the soil as mulch while the stalks are taken
away for processing ,it results in
improvement
 Soil and water conservation enhancement of
soil organic matter and weed suppression
and increased yields
 In Lucknow alone trash mulching was shown
to improve soil organic C by 0.13 % available
N by 37 kg/ha available P by 10kg/ha
 Retention of cane trash blanket can result in
upto 10 to 20t/ha of organic matter from
cane leaves that is left on the soil surface
after harvest
 Sugar mills are generally isolated from the
natural ecosystem to minimize the impact of
effluent discharge on rivers and coastal areas
 Reduction of fly ash production- bagasse can
be dried prior to its use as a fuel which
increases the efficiency of burning and
reduce emissions
 Reduce gas and odour production- hydrogen
peroxide in place of sulphur dioxide in sugar
mills has shown to reduce air pollution and
 resulted in quality white sugar while requiring
no new equipment
 Reducing effluent discharge- the mill sludge
can be treated with microorganism that
accelerate the rate of decomposition
 Wet scrubbers and Electrostatic precipitator play
an important role in controlling air pollution
from chimneys
S.NO STATION OPTION SUGGESTED SAVING OF
WATER IN
LITRES
1 Milling plant Use fully hot condensate 4,50,000
instead of fresh water
supplement
2 Boiler feed Overflow of all condensate 1,50,000
from vapour cell ,first body
water evaporator and pan should be
connected to small storage
tank
3 a) Clarification Re circulate the cooling waters 2,00,000
house Use treated effluent water for
compressor cooling purposes and connect
b) Sulphur burner it to spray pond to reduce the
temperature
4 Oliver filter Instead of using fresh water 7,00,000
spray pond water may be used
to create vacuum at vacuum
pump &barometric condenser
S.NO. STATION OPTION SUGGESTED SAVING OF
WATER IN
LITRES
5 Boiling and Instead of allowing fresh water to go 2,00,000
to spray pond after cooling at
centrifuge vertical crystallizer and massecuite
section allow it go to service tank

6 Cooling Mill drive , mill bearing, power house recirculated

turbine, fiberisers, compressor,
waters cooling water and vertical crystallizer
7 Preparation of Use hot water instead of fresh water 50,000
seed and
mixture
8 Tap Keep bear minimum 50,000
connection
9 Excess Mini cooling water 3,50,000
condensate
10 Total saving of 23,50,000
fresh water
 Bagasse the most important by product is great
boiler fuel ,it also found its uses in paper industry
and has been used as a mulch to aid re vegetation
and is excellent substrate in mushroom cultivation
 Filtration –Fly ash extracted from boiler chimney
gas can be used as filtration aid in the sugar mill
and can also be used to remove pesticides from
wastewater
 Bagasse also a potential valuable cellulose source
for the production of chemicals such as pentosans
 Fuel production-Juice extracted from cane can also
be fermented directly and product distilled to
produce alcohol for fuel (bioethanol)
 Yeast production- molasses produced in the
processing of sugar is an important raw material
for the fermentation industry and production of
yeast
 Co generation has revolutionalized the sugar
industry and sustainability of sugar production