CHARATERIS

TICS AND
TREATMENT
OF WASTE
GENERATED
BY SUGAR
INDUSTRY
Sugarcane is the world's largest crop. It is cultivated on about
23.8 M.ha in more than 90 countries, with a worldwide
harvest of 1.69 billion tonnes (FAO, 2011). Brazil (22%) is
thelargest producer of sugar cane in the world next major
producers; in the order are India (15%), China, Thailand,
Pakistan and Mexico. Sugarcane predominantly grows in the
tropical and subtropical regions. Sugarcane accounts for 80%
of sugar produced.

SUGAR INDUSTRY :
 The sugar industry subsumes the
production processing and marketing of
sugars. Globally most of the sugar is
extracted from the sugarcane and
sugarbeet.
 Sugar is an essential basis for
drinks,/sweetened
breverages,candy/sweets,baking
products .
 Around 460 million tones of sugar is
produced every year .The largest
producer are Brazil { 72%} India
{15%} and the European Countries
{1%} .
SUGAR BEET SUGAR CANE
 Derived from  Derived from
sugar beet. sugar cane.
 It grows entirely  It grows entirely
in the temperature in tropical&
zone. subtropical zone.
 Sugar beet  It accounts for
accounts for 20% 80% of sugar
of sugar produced.
produced.  The sugar cane is
 Sugar beet is tap tropical tall true
root and it has grasses.
white fleshy root.  Top countries to
 Top countries to produce are
produce are Brazil, India,
Germany, Russia, China, Thailand,
United States , Pakistan.
Turkey ,France.
CHARACTERISTICS OF WASTE
GENERATED BY THE SUGAR
INDUSTRY:
Sugar industries wastewaters are characterized
by High Biological Oxygen Demand
{BOD},Chemical Oxygen Demand {COD}and
total dissolved solids{TDS}Total suspended
solids[TSS] .The waste water is generated by
the its brown colour ,low Ph ,high temperature,
odour ,high % of dissolved organic and
inorganic matter and also oils ,chlorides,
sulphates and heavy metals.
WHY DO WE NEED TO TREAT
THE WASTE WATER ?
The waste water generated by sugar
industry has enormous effect on ecosystem
and environment. About 1000 tons of
waste is generated through the 1 ton of
cane crushing had chemical oxygen
 demand of waste water as approximately
5000-6000mg/l .
As waste water discharged in it also poses
pollution in both aquatic and tresstrial
ecosystem. Also ,the wastewater when not
treated completely produces unpleasant
odour when released in the environment.
SOURCES OF WASTEWATER:
i. Sugar industry wastewater is mainly
produced by the cleaning operations.
ii. Washing of milling house floor ,various
division of boiling house like
evaporates ,clarifiers , vacuum
pans ,centrifugation ,generates huge
volume of the waste.
iii. Leakages from the pumps, pipelines
centrifuging unit, also contribute to the
waste.
iv. The cleaning of heat exchangers and
evaporators with NaOH and HCL to
 remove the scales on the tube surface
contribute organic and inorganic
pollutant loadings of waste.
Types of solid waste:
A. Pressmud
B. Spent wash
C. Bagasse
D. Molasses
A. Press mud is a by-product of
sugar industry.For every 100 tonnes of
sugarcane crushed about 3 tonnes of press
mud cake is obtained. About 5.2 million
tonnes of Press mud is being produced in
our country every year. Press mud contains
sizable quantity of macro (1.1-3% N, 0.6-
3.5% P, 0.30-1.8% K) and micro nutrients,
besides 20-25% of organic carbon. Press
mud is widely used in compost production.
USES:
•It is mixed with distillery effluent helps to
reduce toxic effect of effluent, minimize the
BOD and COD contents which enriches its
nutritional values and makes one of the best
organic manure.
• This has also mitigated the need to treat the
Distillery effluent and save money spent for its
treatment.
• Press mud contains trace quantity of
micronutrients and prevents soil erosion,
crusting and cracking, adjusts soil pH,
improves drainage and promotes normal
bacterial and microbial growth in the soil.
• It is used as both soil reclaimant (red loamy
soil) as well as soil conditioner.
B. SPENT WASH : Waste water generated by
distilleries during the distillation and
fermented molasses to ethyl alcohol using
specific strains of yeast. It is Potential
polluting agent because it is highly acidic (pH
< 4.0), high BOD and COD and high
dissolved solids and organic matter content.
Hence, it has to be subjected to further
treatments before use / disposal.
Treatment of spent wash:
Anaerobic digestion, activated sludge
treatment and trickling filtration methods are
used for waste water treatment.
In anaerobic digestion the dissolved organic
solids are transferred into methane, carbon
dioxide, small amounts of other gases.
In trickling filtration and in activated sludge
treatment the microbial population utilises
oxygen dissolved in the waste water to oxidise
the dissolved organic matter to carbon dioxide
and water.
Spent wash use - Pre-sown one time
application of spent wash as organic liquid
manure for dry land agriculture.
B. BAGASSE : It is generated as a by-
product, fibrous matter that remains after
sugarcane crushed to extract juice.
• Fuel source for sugar mills
• Substitute for plywood, partitions, furniture
• Mushroom cultivation
• Paper production, tissue paper making etc
. Bagasse is importantly used in electricity
production by Cogeneration.
C.MOLASSES: Molasses is a dark brown viscous
liquid obtained as a by-product of SUGARCANE
while processing. It contains nearly 45%
uncrystallized, fermentable SUGAR and some
sucrose. It is a valued by-product of the SUGAR
INDUSTRY. Molasses on distillation produces
rectified spirit, denatured spirit and
alcohol/ethanol. It is used for sweetening and
flavouring foods like cookies, pies, gingerbread
and others. It is used as a principle ingredient in
the distillation of rum.
A. Chemical use of molasses: Used as the carbon
source for in-situ remediation of chlorinated
hydrocarbons like trichloro-ethane, vinyl chloride
etc. Molasses is blended with magnesium chloride
and used for de-icing.
B. Industrial use molasses: Used as a chelating
agent to remove rust. Ink rollers on printing
presses were mixture of molasses and glue.
Molasses are widely used in Ethanol production:
Molasses is a colourless, flammable liquid which
is produced from the fermentation. Used in paint,
permanent markers, perfumes and deodorants.

Treatment methods:
Treatment of sugar industry wastewater
requires a process that combine
mechanical, chemical ,and biological
treatment measures.
Screening ,grift removal, flow equalization
,sedimentation or dissolved air floatation
are used to reduce suspended solids [SS]
load from sugar industry wastewater.
Biological treatment methods are applied
for the reduction of soluble organic matter
and disinfections. Biological treatment
includes aerobic and anaerobic process.
Except biological methods,
physicochemical methods are also used for
sugar industry wastewater treatment.

Biological methods:
Biological Methods: Sugar industry wastewater
generally contains volatile fatty acids, and sugar that is
biodegradable, so anaerobic and aerobic treatments
methods are employed.
Aerobic Treatment: It is used to degrade the
organic matter in the presence of oxygen. In
traditional aerobic methods, the sugar industrial
effluent is treated by using of trickling filters,
activated slims, aerated bayous or their
combination. Earlier the lagoons were used for
sugar industry waste treatment because of being an
economical process. But the larger area
requirements and emission of unpleasant and
annoying odour during the treatment process are
some of the disadvantages of lagoons. The effluent
of sugar industry can easily be biodegraded except
oils and greases that are not degraded aerobically
because of the generation of methane during
hydrolysis. It was concluded that the aerobic
treatment is used for the removal of industry
pollutants.
ANAEROBIC TREAMENT: Anaerobic
treatment process is used for the removal of
industry pollutants. It is very important technique
than aerobic treatment. In aerobic method for the
treatment of industrial waste, less energy is to be
needed due to the degradation of organic matter
and production of methane gas. As a consequence,
decrease in sludge formation and sludge disposal
cost is also reduced. Anaerobic treatment method
has many advantages over aerobic waste
treatment, because less energy is required due to
the production of methane gas. Degradation of
Anaerobic batch reactor (ABR),
Anaerobic fixed bed reactor (AFR)
Up-flow anaerobic fixed (UAFB) reactor
Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge blanket reactions, are
commonly used in the treatment of wastewater
during anaerobic treatment process.
USAB:
This reactor is used in anaerobic process.
In this the anaerobic treatment the complex
organic matter gets converted to simpler form
of methane gas through the stages like
hydrolyses, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and
methanogenesis
 physico -chemical methods
Physical Methods for Water Treatment
a) Coagulation and Flocculation Coagulation is
very important physicochemical technique for the
treatment of wastewater. Both coagulation and
flocculation take place in successive step used to
break the forces among suspended solid particles .
Coagulation can be defined as use of positively
charged salts of metal ions that cause particle
destabilization and charge neutralization.The
Flocculation is due to thesuccessful collision that
takes place as destabilized particle are brought
each other by the hydraulic shear force in a quick
mixing.
b) Chemical Precipitation Method Chemical
precipitation method is usually followed for the
removal of heavy metals from inorganic industrial
effluent. These are conventional techniques
produce insoluble precipitation of heavy metals in
forms of hydroxide, phosphate, sulfide, and
carbonate. The insoluble metal precipitates are
produced by hydroxide technique and easy to
remove them from polluted water. This technique
can be improved by changing critical parameters
such as pH, temperature, initial concentrations and
ion charges
Electrochemical Treatment of Sugar
Industry Wastewater : Organic wastewater
treatment by aerobic and anaerobic technique is an
acceptable process due to its efficiency for COD
and BOD removal. Though, all classical available
biological methods for sugar industrial wastewater
(SIWW) treatment are not possible due to the large
area and high capital of operational cost
requirement. It has been observed that
electrochemical treatment (ECT) of sugar
industrial wastewater is an economical alternative
method than conventional methods when fails to
reduce pollution . An ECT method has many
benefits as it is efficient to remove
Conclusion The sugar industry generates many
toxic substances in the environment. The main by-
products generated from the sugar industry are
press mud, bagasse, bagasse fly ash, and molasses.
These by-products are converted to obtain valuable
products will decrease environmental pollution to
large extent. Additionally, wastewater is treated by
different contaminants in a compact reactor with a
simple controller for controlling the operation of
the processes to reduce environmental pollution
through electrochemical and microbiological
treatment methods. Effective waste management is
very helpful to reduce the effects on biodiversity. It
is concluded that the sugar industry should be
considered as an economic resource and its by
products can be changed into useful products.
Thus, effective and economic methods are
available to utilize the sugar industry wastes in
better ways.