UPSMA seeks NSI’s help to reduce fresh water usage
Kanpur: The sugar industry in UP sought help of National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur to further reduce its fresh water consumption and effluent discharge . An action plan in this regard was discussed in a meeting held last week between institute officials and representatives of Uttar Pradesh Sugar Mills Association (UPSMA).
“Seeking guidance from NSI, sugar Industry has already taken many initiatives which has resulted in considerable improvement with reference to fresh water consumption, waste water discharge and its quality as indicated by specific Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand ((BOD) loading during last six crushing seasons.
Comparing the figures of 2017-18 with 2022-23 for 147 sugar factories situated in Ganga basin, it shows that the average fresh water requirement has reduced from 155 liter/ton to 77 liter/ton of sugarcane, effluent discharge from 190 liter/ton to 135 liter/ton of sugarcane and BOD loading from 0.0065 kg/ton to 0.0028 kg/ton of sugarcane,” said Professor Narendra Mohan, director at NSI.
“However, there is further scope for improvement and the institute has the vision to further reduce fresh water consumption by adopting innovative technology for minimizing steam requirement and recycling waste water after cost effective treatment,” he added.
“Now to meet changing market requirements, sugar industry needs to adopt different processes for making sugar of desired qualities for which different techniques need to be used. Because of this, various requirements including fresh water consumption also varies and in some cases also becomes higher. With the help of NSI we would like to implement a charter for keeping our fresh water requirements lower and ensuring quality and quantity of effluent as per norms,” said Deepak Guptara, secretary general at UPSMA.
