Ethanol production set in motion in distillery unit of hitherto defunct Amaravathi Cooperative Sugar Mill
The Amaravathy Cooperative Sugar Mill has started extracting rectified spirit and ethanol from molasses. With 3,500 tonnes of molasses, the distillery will produce 225 litres of rectified spirit and 215 litres of ethanol daily. The mill has sourced a ₹30 lakh loan to purchase furnace oil, with proceeds from spirit sales used to settle debts. A modernization proposal worth ₹166 crore is under review to upgrade machinery and restart regular cane crushing operations by late 2025.
The process of extracting rectified spirit and ethanol at the distillery division of Amaravathy Cooperative Sugar Mill has begun.
Minister for Information and Publicity M. P. Saminathan inaugurated the activity on Monday in the presence of Minister for Human Resource Management N. Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, Tiruppur Collector T. Christuraj and other dignitaries.
In the absence of crushing activity due to the wear and tear of machinery, the Amaravathy Cooperative Sugar Mill was sanctioned an order for procurement of 2,726. 96 metric tonnes of molasses from other cane mills, during August.
With the available storage and the procured molasses totalling 3,500 tonnes, the distillery unit with a capacity to process 100 metric tonnes of molasses per day will be able to produce 225 litres of rectified spirit and 215 litres of ethanol every day.
In the coming months, molasses will be procured from other mills to sustain the operations of the distillery unit till January-February 2025, official sources said.
The mill has sourced ₹30 lakh as loan from the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Sugar Federation for purchase of furnace oil required for the production process. The Federation will sell the spirit and deduct the loan from the proceeds. Also, 90 percent of the sale of the spirit will be utilised to settle the pending debts, and the rest will be provided to the mill.
The mill will, however, be in a position to participate in the tenders of IOCL, BPCL and HPCL for supply of specified quantities of ethanol from November 2024 to October 2025.
Meanwhile, the ₹80 crore proposal for first-phase funding to modernise machinery in the mill, which had been functioning until last year with the worn out equipment installed in 1961, has been forwarded to the Finance Department by the office of Commissioner of Sugar.
The ₹86 crore to be sanctioned in the second phase is meant to be utilised as working capital.
Only then can the normal cane crushing activity in the mill that has a command area of several thousands of hectares spread over Tiruppur, Coimbatore and Dindigul districts be resumed, sources added.
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