APPCB

PUBLICATION 118

INFORMATION BULLETIN

APRIL, 2004

BENEFITS OF ENERGY AUDIT AND CONSERVATION IN SUGAR AND DISTILLERY UNITS BACKGROUND Sugar Industry is one of the oldest industrial sector of our country. The Indian sugar industry is the second largest producer of sugar in the world, manufacturing nearly 15 million tones of sugar from cane. With the recent liberalization of sugar industry and the increasing demand for sugar, the sugar industry is poised for tremendous growth. The state of Andhra Pradesh is blessed with highly fertile lands and sugar cane is one of the key agricultural outputs. The availability of sugar cane has propelled individuals as well as institutions to venture out into sugar manufacturing as early as 1920s. This has gradually led to establishment of Sugar industries through out Andhra Pradesh and at present there are about 40 units. The earlier vintage plants have also seen gradual expansions with a shift from conventional to modern technologies. The sugar industry by its inherent nature can generate surplus energy through in contrast to the other industries, which are only consumers of energy. With liberalization and increased competition, the generation and selling of excess power to the electricity board, offers an excellent source of revenue generation to the sugar plants. This is referred to as commercial cogeneration and has been only marginally tapped in our country. The available potential yet to be tapped is nearly 3000 MW. The utilization of the extra power generation capability of the sugar industries, can aid in partly mitigating the situation. The associated auxiliary Distillery Industry has also seen equal if not higher growth over the periods. However, as the industry has grown over the years, there have been peculiar problems confronting the sugar and distillery units ranging from, availability and costs of sugar cane, increasing energy cost, decrease in sugar prices, increasing cost towards pollution control etc. The industries have been adopting different strategies to overcome these problems, like going in for energy cost optimization, installation of co-generation plants, use of alternative fuels, lower dependence on grid, etc. Hence, the present and future focus of the Governments and the Indian sugar and Distillery industries will be, towards developing infrastructure for generating and utilizing this extra power generation capabilities and energy savings. This bulletin highlights how to incorporate energy efficiency aspects at the design / project stage itself.

CLEANER PRODUCTION CELL, A.P.POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD, HYDERABAD

Sugar Units : The sugar industry is a unique industry with the following characteristics: Highly energy intensive The by-product baggasse, is used as a fuel for generation of steam and power. Depending on the system, excess power can be generated and sold to the grid. example illustrates the facts: Heat content in steam at 42 Kg/cm2 & 400C 768 Kcal/Kg Heat content in steam at 65 Kg/cm2 & 480C 805 Kcal/Kg

The sugar industry consumes both steam and power. Hence, the plant should take-up steam and electricity saving projects together, to achieve maximum benefits. Distillery Units: The distillery units have a good opportunity with the availability of methane gas as a by-product in the digesters. Methane gas is used as fuel in the boiler substituting commercial fuels. In some of the units, micro-turbines are used for meeting the power and process steam requirements. ISSUES OF ENERGY SAVING IN SUGAR / DISTILLERY INDUSTRY Following are some of the Energy saving options: Steam Generation: Typically, most of the sugar industries are installed with a battery of boilers of different ratings. The boilers are characteristically designed to operate at 21 Kg/Cm2 & 300 C, 42 Kg/Cm2 & 400C, 65 Kg/Cm2 & 480C. The recent sugar plants boilers are designed for even higher pressure & temperature ratings i.e. 65 Kg/Cm2 & 480C to take advantage of the higher heat content in the steam, which can be effectively used in the turbo generator / turbine drives. The following

With the exhaust steam conditions in the turbo generates/turbine drives being the same, a greater amount of power can be drawn with the same amount of steam quantity however, with a marginal increase in the fuel consumption. The boilers are also now a days being designed to operate on other agricultural by products like rice husk, cane agricultural waste etc so that the precious baggasse can be put into alternative value addition processes like paper manufacturing. Apart from these there are many other opportunities available in the boilers viz. better operational practices, excess air optimization, radiation losses control, blow down control etc. by which good savings can be affected, which in turn promotes release of fuel (baggasse) for alternative uses or stock piling of baggasse for the off-season period. Turbo Generator/Turbine Drive: The erstwhile turbo-generators/turbine drives have been designed with lower input steam rating (i.e.) 21Kg/cm2 & 300C with a high specific steam requirement for generating unit power, 15-16 Kg/ KW (in extraction mode). Whereas, the present day turbines compare exceedingly well at 6-8 Kg/KW (extraction mode) for a input steam rating of 65Kg/cm2 & 480C.

CLEANER PRODUCTION CELL, A.P.POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD, HYDERABAD

Driven by this advantage, many of the sugar plants are looking into installing new turbo generators so as to overcome their in-plant power shortages and also to export power to grid. In the off-season, when the process steam requirement is negligible, these turbines can be operated on condensing mode to generate power for probable supply to grid or sister concerns. PROCESS RELATED ISSUES Installing Fiberizer: By installing a fiberizer before the mills the sugar plants have an opportunity to reduce the maceration water added in the fourth or fifth stages of mill, as higher percentage of juice is extracted in the first stage of mill. For example Juice extraction at 1st mill without fiberizer 43-44% Juice extraction at 1st mill with fiberizer 49-50%

systems have been designed to suppress froth using very low quantities of water, which in turn helps reduce the steam requirement in the process. Juice Heaters: Two types of heaters are normally found in the sugar plants, horizontal & vertical. The horizontal juice heater has a high heat transfer coefficient whereas in the case of vertical juice heater maintenance is easier. The type of juice heater used is unit specific. Multiple Effect Evaporators: The juice concentration is gradually increased in multiple effect evaporators. Now a days multiple effect evaporators (quadruple and higher as well) are available, which consume lower quantities of steam for evaporating the same amount of water in juice. Sulphurous Acid Preparation: For sulphitation of the juice/syrup the sugar units are installed with sulphurous acid preparation section wherein sulphur is melted & burnt to emit sulphur dioxide gases and subsequently form sulphurous acid. There exists potential for improvement by adopting new technologies. Steam Supply to Equipment: Many of the process equipments have duplicate/triplicate connections i.e. the same equipment is connected with Exhaust steam lines Vapour from Vapour Cell Live Steam lines

Any reduction in the maceration water leads to an equal reduction of the steam required to evaporate it later. Installing Tandem (Series) Mills: Few of sugar plants have 6 mills in tandem instead of the 5 mills earlier. The advantage being extraction of maximum amount of juice from the sugar cane. The other benefit would be reduction in moisture content in the baggasse that would be subsequently fired in the boiler; this leads to improving the evaporation ratio of the boiler. Froth Suppression: As the juice is extracted sequentially in the mills, froth is formed for suppression of which water is added. At present

These multiple steam source provisions lead to excessive steam lines & steam leaders etc, causing higher heat losses, additional steam traps which require frequent maintenance. To the extent possible, equipments should be connected with only

CLEANER PRODUCTION CELL, A.P.POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD, HYDERABAD

one source of steam supply. Loading of Turbines: As sugar plant have a battery of steam turbines, the number of turbines put into operation depends upon the electrical load & process steam requirement. It would be a good practice to operate the turbines at optimum loads, as the specific steam consumption per unit power increases with decrease in load. Thermal Insulation: The steam and condensate distribution network should be properly insulated and it has to be ensured that all the flanges & valves are insulated using collapsible form of material to facilitate inspection & maintenance. Ethanol manufacture: As ethanol is being allowed to be blended with petroleum products, sugar plants are exploring the possibility of producing sugar/ ethanol based on the market conditions. As and when the sugar prices are lower, they would produce ethanol and vice-versa. This gives them an opportunity to control the market prices of sugar. BENEFITS OF ENERGY AUDIT CONSERVATION IN SUGAR DISTILLERIES For Industries: Reduced Energy Bills Increased Competitiveness Increased Productivity Improved Quality AND AND

Increased Profits

For the Nation: Reduced Energy Imports Avoided costs which can in turn be used for poverty reduction Conservation of limited resources Improved energy security

For the Globe: Reduced GHG and other emissions Maintain in a sustainable environment

Workshop on Energy Audit and Conservation in Sugar and Distilleries A workshop on Energy Audit and Conservation in Sugar and Distillery units was conducted by APPCB through National Productivity Council, Hyderabad on 09.01.2004 at Eluru, W.G.Dist. during the workshop, energy audit methodology and steps required for energy conservation in Sugar & Distillery Units were discussed. At the end of the Workshop it was opined that the energy efficiency is going to play a key role in the survival of the sugar and distillery units in the existing scenario and hence energy conservation studies and demonstration projects shall be encouraged.

For further information and assistance contact :

Mr. B.Madhusudhana Rao or Mr. K.Ravi Kumar or Smt.Geeta Sapare. Cleaner Production Cell, A.P.Pollution Control Board, II Floor, HUDA Complex, Maitrivanam, S.R.Nagar Post, Hyderabad 500 038. Phone: 23752729, 23734043, 23731120, 23732132, 23731126 Fax: 040 23733261.

CLEANER PRODUCTION CELL, A.P.POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD, HYDERABAD