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Lecture1 PDF
Lecture1 PDF
Lecture 1
Introduction to Sugar,
Fermentation Industry and
Manufacture of Alcohol
LECTURE 1
SUGAR AND FERMENTATION INDUSTRY
INTRODUCTION
Sugar industry is one of the most important agro-based industries in India and has an important
impact on rural economy. India is the first two largest sugar producing countries in the world
sugar production during 2007-08 wasRs.263 lakh. There are 624 sugar factories in the country as
on 31-03-2009. Sector wise breakup is as follows in Table M-V 1.1.
Table M-V 1.1: Profile of sugar industry
Sector No. of sugar factories
Private 245
Public 62
Cooperatives 317
Total 624
As per 2010-11
Area 4.98 million hectares
Cane production 346.00 Million tonnes
Sugar production 24.20-24.50 Million tonnes
Source: Business standard April 24, 2012
In 2010-11, sugarcane was planted in 4.98 million hectares across the country, of which 1
million hectares was in Maharashtra and over 2 million hectares in Uttar Pradesh, official
estimates show. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are the two largest sugarcane producing states in
the country, accounting for more than 80percent of the annual crop production. India is one of
the largest producers of alcohol in the world and there has been a steady increase in its
production over the last 15 years, according to fresh statistics.
India is a dominant producer of alcohol in the South-East Asian region with 65percent of the
total shares and contributes to around seven percent of the total alcohol beverage imports into the
region. More than two-thirds of the total beverage alcohol consumption within the region is in
India, according to figures in the newly compiled Alcohol Atlas of India. There has been a steady
increase in the production of alcohol in the country, with the production doubling from 887.2
million liters in 1992-93 to 1,654 million liters in 1999-2000 and was expected to treble to 2300
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million liters by 2007-08. Sugar industry is highly seasonal industry, with season lengths of
about 6-18 weeks for beets and 20-32 weeks for cane [Pollution Prevention hand book, World
Bank group July, 1998]
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Figure M-V 1.1: Schematics of Sugar Production Process
Source: Kaul et al.,1998
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ETHANOL
India is amongst two largest sugar producing countries in the world and converts the molasses
from sugar plant to alcohol. India is fourth largest producer of ethanol in the world and second
largest in Asia. India produces about 2.75 billion liters alcohol annually. The demand for potable
alcohol has been ever increasing [Chauhan et al., 2012]. Today 95 percent of ethanol is produced
by fermentation and only 5percent is produced from petroleum feed stock by ethylene route
[Data, 2011]
Ethanol has become one of the important products as alternative feedstock for large number of
organic chemicals and fuel. Ethanol is an oxygenated fuel that contains 35percent oxygen, which
reduces particulate and NOx emissions from combustion [Badger, 2002]. Alcohol is now being
used for potable liquor, as chemical feed stock, as solvent and as oxygenates. Process
manufacturing of alcohol is shown in Figure M-V 1.2.
Various routes for manufacture of ethanol are:
Alcohol from Fermentation of molasses
Alcohol from Lignocelluloses biomass
Alcohol from starchy feed stocks
Petrochemical route via Catalytic hydration of ethylene and Ethylene esterification and
hydrolysis
Fermentation of Molasses
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Molasses is the residue left after extraction of crystallised sugar and is one of the major
byproducts of the sugar industry. Ethyl alcohol is made from molasses by fermentation process
utilising yeast enzymes.
A typical distillery consist of
Molasses handling
Fermentation feeding system
Preparation of yeast inculam, propagation of yeast
Fermentation
Distillation of dilute alcohol for removal of impurities
Concentration of the dilute alcohol to rectified spirit and absolute alcohol
Molasses handling involves weighing of the molasses and pumping of molasses to the molasses
tank from which the measured quantity of molasses is transferred to the fermenter.
Preparation of yeast inculam, propagation of yeast: Yeast material is prepared in water cooled
yeast vessels by inoculating molasses with yeast and then transferred to aerated yeast activation
vessel to allow time for yeast cell multiplication
Fermentation involves fermentation of fermentable sugars by microorganism and formation of
alcohol and other by-products. Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is commonly used for the
fermentation of glucose to ethanol. After the fermentation alcohol of 7-8percent strength is
obtained. Fermentation is exothermic process and heat is generated. Removal of heat is
necessary to maintain the temperature in fermenter. High temperature lowers the alcohol
productivity. Nutrients are added to the fermenter intermittently depending upon the
requirement. Sulphuric acid is added to adjust the pH of fermenter liquid. Excess foaming in the
fermenter is controlled by antifoam solution. During the normal operation treated yeast cells
recovered from the fermented wash are recycled from the yeast treatment system to activation
vessel and after that transfer to the fermenter.
After fermentation is completed, the dil. liquor (8-10percent alcohol) is preheated and pumped to
the beer still where the alcohol 50-60percent) and other volatiles like aldehydes are distilled off
from the top and send to the aldehyde column for separation of aldehydes and other low boiling
impurities. The residue from the bottom of the beer column is known as slops or tillage are
discharged and treated for recovery of energy or concentrated and used. Alcohol drawn from side
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stream of the aldehyde column is sent to rectifying column. The azeotrop alcohol containing
alcohol about 95-96percent alcohol is taken as top side stream from the rectifying column.
Alcohol recovery: this section involves the recovery of alcohol from the fermentation section to
minimize the possible losses of alcohol along with generated CO2 and sludge from fermented.
Typical reactions involved are
C12H22OH + H2O C6H12 O6 + C6H12 O6
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PROCESS TECHNOLOGY
All conversion schemes involves following basic steps:
Feedstock harvest, transport and storage
Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass
Enzyme hydrolysis of cellulose in the lignocellulosic materials to fermentable reducing
sugars
Fermentation of sugar into ethanol
Downstream processing of ethanol
Pretreatment of biomass is a prerequisite to the biological conversion of lignocellosic biomass to
ethanol. Pretreatment is done either physically, chemically or biologically to make pretreated
biomass more amenable to subsequent cellulose hydrolysis. Pretreatment alter the size and
structure of the biomass as well as chemical composition [Thakur et al., 2011]. Figure M-V 1.3
shows process diagram of Biochemical Conversion Route of Biomass to Biofuels
Ethanol from cellulosic material is produced either by acid hydrolysis using sulphuric acid or
enzymatic hydrolysis. Both dilute and concentrated sulphuric acid are used in acid hydrolysis.
Dilute sulphuric acid involves milder condition than concentrated sulphuric acid hydrolysis. In
acidic hydrolysis first converts cellulosic materials to sugar followed by conversion of sugar to
other chemicals.
Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose another route for alcohol. Enzymatic processes required
pretreatment of lignocellulosic to break the crystalline structure of lignocellulosic and remove
the lignin to expose the cellulose and hemicelluloses. Depending on the biomass material
physical or chemical pretreatment methods may be used. Physical method may use high
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temperature and pressure, milling, radiation or freezing. The chemical method uses a solvent to
break apart and dissolve the crystalline structure [Badger, 2002].
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