Govt. Formulates New Policies For Ethanol Production From Sugar & Grain-Based Feedstock

New Delhi: The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution has released new regulations addressing the manufacturing of ethanol from sugar and grain-based feedstocks in an effort to make the validation process for distilleries simpler.

According to the new guidelines announced on Friday, sugar factories and ethanol units must obtain a process validation report from a technical institute, such as the National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur, the Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI), Pune, or any other technical institute designated by the state government, during the sugar season/ethanol year 2022–23. If no such validation was performed before, then such validations will be necessary for the following years.

Additionally, within a fortnight after doing the on-site validation, the validating agencies must transmit a copy of the validation report to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Department of Food & Public Distribution, and Directorate of Sugar & Vegetable Oils. They must also detail the reduction in sugar recovery caused by the shift toward ethanol.

Both ethanol distilleries using sugar or molasses and those using grains are covered by the published guidelines.

According to the food ministry, these guidelines will help distilleries identify the amount of ethanol produced from various sources, such as B-heavy, C-heavy, cane syrup, and various grain-based ethanol.